Integral Realities
by 2chaotic
Summary: Seth is your average teenage digimon fanatic, but his fantasy turns to reality one fateful night when he is almost killed by a digimon. Soon after, he's thrust in a series of events that threatens not only his life, but the life of both worlds...OC Story
1. Reality is such a vague term Pt1

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon nor anything attributed or associated to/with it. Go away you sad lawyers. Go home and feed your vultures.

This is my second attempt at something like this. If you think it may be horrible for that reason alone, then go back to being simple minded somewhere else.

But enough with the threats. I thought I would try my hand at an original (well, at least in the non-canonical sense) story. Oops, I may have said too much :P .

Here goes nothing.

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Reality is a vague term.**

People say I'm obsessed. I tell them it's just being passionate about your hobby. They again say I'm obsessed.

The truth is that I probably am, but then again, doesn't everyone have a personal obsession of his or her own? I mean, everyone has something they care about more so than other people. Everyone has their comfort item or activity. It's how we stay sane. It gives us our sense of normalcy that we so desire.

But my obsession was a bit different from most people. Ever since I first laid eyes upon it, it became the main topic of my fantasies. I watched every show, collected every card, acquired most of the clothing, posted my favorite posters all around my room, and played every game. So yes, I can safely say that I am obsessed.

My obsession? Digimon. That's right, go ahead and laugh it up. Savor the laughable thought of a nerd slaving the night away playing the card game over the Internet with someone from Japan. Relish at the lack of social abilities you assume I don't have.

That won't change the fact that I still love it.

But enough about that. I had just gotten my newest item in my vast collection. The newest digimon game that I had just returned from the store with was screaming to be loaded onto my digimon-themed computer. I wasn't going to let it down either. I'd stood in line for over three hours to get it after all.

This particular piece of software was developed by a company called "Integral Designs" that was based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. The software claimed to be the next generation in MMO games. It was a MMO (Massively multiplayer online game. Best example: World of Warcraft…) that was set in the digimon universe. It wasn't much different from any other game out there except for four things. Four very influential things.

The first was that you were given a digimon to take care of, but you had no control over its actions in the game. You basically were its tamer so to speak. The game came with a small card scanner that you could use to scan cards that would modify your digimon's stats or let it use special attacks.

The second was that you played the game using mostly a microphone. The game was designed so that you guided the digimon with your voice commands, much like the kids from the TV shows. This alone was reason enough to make the game one of the hottest gifts of the holiday season.

However, the third reason was by far the best reason for its claim to fame. The game claimed to have human-like AI. The creators of the game claimed that if you talked to the digimon, it would think about it and response like a human would. I was a bit skeptical about this part for an obvious reason: If the best scientists in the world couldn't make an AI capable of this, then how could a game company do it in just 5 months? (The 5-month part was a feat on its own)

The fourth and final reason was that the game included a special webcam designed for use in the game. I just assumed it was for video chat between players. All the webcam consisted of was a Koromon-shaped camera with a microphone on it.

It was time for me to find out for myself how much was true. I sat at my computer in my room, happily installing the hyped game. The installation was taking a while, so I began pacing around the house like I did when I was bored. I walked to the modest living room with its average couch and TV, to the small-yet-well-equipped kitchen, to my parent's bedroom, back to my room. I stood gazing at myself in the mirror.

I was a bit short for a high-school junior and weighed in at just 130 pounds. My short, dark brown hair sat in its normal unkempt position. My brown eyes held a certain glint in them that I couldn't quite decipher. My black T-shirt exposed my lack of arm exercise and lack of body fat. I was just skin and bones, although I ran track and cross country for my high school. I was definitely a nerd who sat around the house.

As if on cue, the computer beeped loudly to indicate it had finished its task. I practically leaped into the chair and laughed in gleeful anticipation as the game loaded. In the mean time, I hooked up the webcam and card scanner to the computer. I also fished out my large collection of digimon cards to use with the scanner if the need arose.

The game loaded the splash screen revealing the name of the game, "Digimon World: Reality", in the large blue lettering with yellow outline that was the standard Digimon lettering. It then forced me to create an account. I choose my normal username: 2chaotic. Then I inserted all my information.

The game then asked me a few questions, which I immediately recognized as an attempt to identify my personality. It was probably going to try to match me with a digimon that suited my personality. Luckily, I was good at guessing which answers best suited my preferred method of play: sneakiness.

After thirty or so questions, the game finally started to load without even mention what it had chosen for me. _Well, that's a little weird. _

I will have to say the loading screen looked pretty amazing to me. It was a cutscene where two teams of assorted digimon were playing soccer. The scene itself was extremely detailed far beyond any computer graphics that I'd ever scene. It would have taken a very long time to create, so I said a silent kudos to the people who made this. It was only fair.

The scene ended as abruptly as it started.

"Hello."

That sure wasn't my voice. I looked on in astoundment as a humanoid raccoon spoke to me. It was around as tall as I was, and stood on two legs. It looked masculine, so I assumed "it" was a he. His bright, blue eyes shone out from behind the definitive "mask" of a raccoon He had two short, triangular ears and a short snout with its small black nose. His gray fur was accented by the large patch of white that extended from his neck, down his chest, and stopped at the groin. His clawed paws were slightly different from a real raccoon in the fact that his thumbs were opposable. A medium sized, bushy tail extended from his rear to complete the look.

He sure had a taste for a thief's apparel though. He wore a jet-black vest made definitely from thick cotton along with dark grey shorts. A small dagger hid in a small sheath attached to a ring of fabric on his pants.

He cleared his throat to get my attention, saying, "Are you going to just stare at me all day?"

I said in reply, "Oh, sorry. I just…Hey, wait a second. How did you know I was staring?"

He folded his arms, already getting an attitude. "I'm not blind. Your mouth was wide open."

My mouth dropped again. "You…can see me?"

He was starting to get annoyed. "Yes. Now are you going to tell me your name or ask dumb questions all day?"

It seems the webcam had more of a use than the company had let on. I smiled and said, "I'm Seth. Who are you?"

He answered, "I'm Roguemon. Nice to meet you."

The conversation reduced to an awkward silence for a moment as I finally took a look at the surroundings. Roguemon was standing randomly in the middle of a dirt street near a bunch of log cabins. There weren't any other digimon around which made the place seem desolate. Not that it mattered that much to me; the fewer people, the better.

Roguemon started taping his feet out of impatience. "Do you ever not stare? Come on, let's do something already."

He sure was bored easily, but then so was I. "Alright, but what is there to do?"

He spread his arms into a "Y" above his head and said, "There's a whole world to explore. Do you really have to ask?"

I laughed at the weird gesture. "So then, where do we start exploring?"

He turned around and pointed toward a large castle in the distance. "How about we start there?"

"Sounds good to me."

With that, we set out for the castle.

* * *

Ronald was not having a good day. Troubleshooting a half dozen servers at 1 o clock in the morning is not something he normally did. Ronald didn't like interruptions in his normal schedule.

However, things were far from normal right now. Just minutes ago, he had been sitting comfortably in the conference room sipping on a large cup of hot chocolate wondering if the launch could have gone any smoother. Everyone had been having a grand old time. Joey was attempting to beat Sonya at chess again, to no avail. Barrett and Chad were getting into a debate over which man had the better Christmas shirt on.

The Christmas party was something the whole maintenance team looked forward to every year. The festivities were planned long in advance. The Real Hacienda always catered the food of course. The conference room was decorated with just the right amount of holly and mistletoe, and everyone wore their favorite Christmas shirt.

The only difference this year was that the launch of Digimon World: Reality was on the eve of the Christmas party. But the maintenance crew was not going to cancel their party just because of this. _Oh no_, Ronald thought, _It would take much more than a lousy launch to stop our party._

But this was more than just a lousy launch. Every server save one had just shut off simultaneously at the exact moment that the game had launched. This wasn't the worst possible thing that could happen on a launch night, but with since it was Integral Design's best selling game, the bosses would have maintenance's heads on a gold platter if they didn't find out what went wrong by sunrise.

As he was restarting servers and checking wires, he got to thinking. _What if this wasn't just some freak coincidence? _It sure was strange that only a single server survived the catastrophe unscathed. He had a bad feeling about this.

Ronald was never wrong when it came to bad feelings either.


	2. Reality is such a vague term Pt2

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything related to or attributed to it.

**Chapter Two – Reality is such a vague term (Pt.2)**

The word "castle" didn't do this massive fortress much homage. Even from the distance of around three miles, the fortress demanded your attention. There were seven towers that formed a circle around a larger, central tower that really made you feel insignificant, and we hadn't even reached the base of the place yet. _This place must be huge up close._

I was right. As Roguemon approached an open gate within the wall of the fortress, I gawked at the immensity of the massive structure. It put the many castles that I'd seen pictures of to shame. It was easily the size of a large, metropolitan city.

Roguemon whistled in awe. "Some mon' has a prime piece of real estate here. How about we give them a visit?"

I just sat back in my chair as I began rummaging through my old digimon cards to find some useful ones in case a battle ensued. "Sounds good to me."

He walked with caution in his stance as we came into view of the inside. Naturally, there was a city here, but it seemed to be deserted. Not a single sound or sign of life was seen or heard as we crept through the streets towards the main tower that loomed over the town. "Creeeeepyyyy..."

I couldn't help but to agree. "No kidding. But why would someone build all this only to leave it deserted?"

"I don't know, but let's be on guard, just in case that reason isn't friendly," he said as he pulled his dagger from the sheath.

I continued sorting through my cards, placing the attack cards, defense cards, and augment cards in separate piles next to the reader on my desk. Roguemon kept walking, checking alleyways and windows for signs of life. We reached the base of the main tower without incident though. Still no sign of life.

The door at the bottom of the tower was locked; However, there was no visible lock on the door. Roguemon jokingly knocked on the door, yelling, "Anyone home?"

To our surprise, the door unlocked and swung open. Mysteriously enough, there was no one on the other side. Roguemon gingerly stepped inside, watching for movement.

The inside of the tower wasn't much to look at. There was a lone table with a few chairs in the middle of the room and a few lit torches lined the walls. A stone staircase spiraled above us. As Roguemon moved to inspect the table, the door slammed shut behind him, and the lock clicked.

Neither of us had to check the door to know it wasn't possible to open it. There was no lock visible on the inside either. Which meant someone, or rather something, was trying to keep Roguemon prisoner here.

He shrugged at the predicament. "Heh, it happens. Want to go up the stairs?" he said with a hint of excitement in his voice and on his face.

It didn't seem that we had any other choice. "I'm ready with my cards, so up you go." I had a funny feeling that we were about to battle something, and that something probably was at the top of the staircase.

Roguemon obviously deduced this too, as he firmly held his dagger in his hand, ready to strike. I wasn't even in any danger and I was tensing up.

The stairs went up at least 1000 feet, and Roguemon was panting by the time he reached the top. Luckily, the top of the stairs stopped at a thick, wooden door, so Roguemon regained his breath and rereadied his dagger. Holding his breath, he opened the heavy door ever so slowly and peered through the crack.

Inside was what appeared to be an office of some sort. Shelves full of books of every shape and size lined the walls. The stone floor was covered in the middle of the room by a large, green carpet with gold trim. In the middle of the carpet sat a desk, and behind the desk was a swiveling chair with its back turned to us. A large window sat directly behind the chair, letting the sun shine straight into our eyes.

"Right on time," whispered a voice that came from the chair.

"Who's there?" Roguemon and I said in unison. Roguemon looked as if he was ready to pounce at the chair.

The voice continued, louder now, "Now, now, there's no need to get anxious." The chair slowly swiveled to reveal the voice's identity.

The voice belonged to a young blond boy, with bright blue eyes. He was wearing a white roman toga, which gave him that ancient times look. He wasn't very tall, and the chair made him appear that much smaller. A devilish grin sat upon his face.

But wait a second. Were there supposed to be people in a digimon only game?

He spoke in an almost arrogant voice, "I am Luce." He put his fingers into triangle. "Now, I am sure you're wondering why there aren't any other digimon around."

Roguemon said, "Let me guess, you had something to do with it."

He stood up out of the chair, and began pacing near the window with his hands behind his back. Looking at the ground, he replied, "At least you catch on fast. Yes, the mysterious emptiness is my fault." Silence lingered for a few moments before he continued, "Would you like to know something interesting, Seth? Right..."

I interrupted, "Hey, how do you know my name? And what do you want for that matter?"

Cringing, he stopped at the center of the window, and faced us. He looked me in the eyes, and said, "You, Seth, are a major topic of discussion amongst me and my associates. However, that does not matter. What I want is of no consequence. Now, I was trying to tell you, before you rudely interrupted me, that your computer is the only one connected to the servers of this game. Before you ask, yes, I did that too. But do you know why?"

I shrugged. "So you could get my autograph?" I jeered.

His eyes flared up in rage, and he drew back his right hand. He yelled, "Grand Feat!" and a spear of pure light formed into his outstretched hand.

Roguemon didn't wait to leap over the desk at this "Luce" person. Equally as loud, he screamed, "Rogue Twister!" and he began rapidly swirling in the air with his blade extended.

Luce was faster though. His spear flew through the air, collided with the spinning form of Roguemon, and pinned him to the wall by the fabric of his shirt. He had already began forming another spear, as he said, "I need to kill you Seth."

I was fumbling through my cards when he said this, trying to find a speed boosting card. I laughed and automatically responded during my search (which looked more like a mad man throwing cards into the air), "You're a game. You aren't real. How could you possibly kill me?"

Boy that was the wrong thing to say. He screamed out, "WE ARE MORE REAL THAN YOU KNOW!" Then six pairs of angel wings appeared on his body, two yellow bracelets formed on his wrists, and the digital hazard sign glowed onto his left arm.

My heart sank. I should have realized it earlier, being the digimon freak that I was. This was no person. This was...

"LUCEMON!" shouted Roguemon, freeing himself from the spear that held him to the wall.

I finally found the card I was looking for, and slashed it through the reader.

Roguemon's image blurred as the card took effect. He quickly reappeared behind Lucemon, bringing his dagger down at Lucemon neck.

Lucemon smiled manically in the shadows, and grabbed Roguemon by the throat faster than my eyes could even keep up. With Roguemon now grasping for breath, he gracefully leapt into the air and kicked the table towards the door in one swift motion. He planted Roguemon onto the floor, and took to the air once more.

He clapped his hands together, and then all hell broke loose. It began by the roof flying off the tower, exposing us to the midday sun. Then random glowing, blue lines began appearing from nowhere to cover the floor that Roguemon was still lying on. At first, I just though it was a random pattern, but then the lines began forming a hexagon with Roguemon at the center.

With the shape appearing to be complete, the lines got a mind of their own. They began flowing off the ground, and onto Roguemon. The lines wrapped all around his body making him look like a character from Tron. The hexagon theme was clearly apparent through all the glowing blue.

Roguemon wasn't in pain, so I was confused. What was Lucemon doing?

He answered my unsaid question by drawing his own hexagram in the air above Roguemon. The angel digimon clapped again after the design was complete, and then even more hell broke loose as the six towers on the castle wall began glowing the same blue as these weird lines. The glow spread to the ground of the city, and quickly enveloped the entire fortress.

Through all the blue, I could see Lucemon absolutely focusing his gaze on me through the middle of the hexagon. He shouted out, "DESTINY BIND!"

Then something unimaginable happened. Defying all laws of physics, a copy of the hexagram shot out of the webcam sitting on my monitor, and flashed into my chest, knocking me onto the floor.

This was beyond belief. Digimon was just a game...right? Yet here was a hexagram made from light, glowing from the inside of my shirt. To be sure I wasn't having a dream, I slapped myself across the face.

Roguemon yelped out, "Hey, who slapped me?"

Lucemon crackled out evil laughter as the blue began to fade all around the city. "Your sad fates are now connected. If one experiences pain, so too will the other. Such is the nature of my Destiny Bind. Now do you see, Seth, that I am not here for your amusement?"

I was still in shock.

He continued with an inexplicably evil grin on his boyish face, "Still in disbelief? Let me give you some more faith..." He grasped a sword of light that appeared in front of him, and descended to Rogemon, who was now scrambling to his feet.

Roguemon lashed out at Lucemon again, only to be backhanded by Lucemon's free hand into the stone wall.

I grasped my cheek as I felt the blow as well. This really wasn't a dream, much to my current dismay.

Lucemon landed, and casually walked towards Roguemon, who again tried to retaliate. Lucemon kicked him back into the wall, and more pain shot through me.

I winced from my now aching body as I tried to get back into my chair. I had only one way out of this situation. I had to scan my way out.

Lucemon pinned Roguemon's struggling form to the wall, and held the point of his sword up to Roguemon's forehead. Laughing again, he made a not-too-deep "X" cut on his head.

I nearly fainted as I felt the skin part on my forehead, and blood ran down my face. The pain was unbearable and unlike anything I'd ever felt. I'd had my share of broken bones, but this definitely topped all of that pain combined. I grasped my head with one hand, while the other held me in a crawling position.

Lucemon let Roguemon's now limp form slide to the floor. It seemed he had fainted from the ordeal. I didn't know why I hadn't yet.

Lucemon levitated to the center of the room, and chuckled as he said, "Believe yet Seth? It's too bad I have to kill you now. I'd love to torture you for a few days, but that bothersome company will fix the servers soon. As a final gift, let me tell you something..."

Against all odds, I clambered back into my chair, and grabbed the first card that found my hand without even looking to see what it was. I was too busy looking at the mini solar system forming in Lucemon's wide open hands.

"You were digidesitned."

I slashed the card through the reader with the last of my strength, and began to fade out of consciousness.

The last thing I saw was a horribly angry look on Lucemon's face as he shouted, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Then I felt something heavy and furry plow into me, and everything went black.

* * *

** Notes from Chaotic:**

Just so you all know, I've always wanted to write an original story like this. And now that I've started it, I will see it to the end, even if that takes the good majority of my sleep from me.

Yes, before you ask, we will get to other human characters. So until my next update, enjoy fantasizing what the plot may be.

Yes, I always write like this. No, I don't know how to change it.


	3. Not Your Average Monday

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything associated/attributed to it.

**Chapter 3 – Not your average Monday.**

I sat up screaming only to find myself lying in bed in the dark. Apparently, I had been sweating, and my heart was pounding.

I breathed a short sigh of relief, and laughed a little. My clock indicated that it was 5:04 in the morning.

So that means all of last nights events must have been a dream. I brought my hands up to stretch, but my right hand struck something warm and furry in my bed.

I practically hit the ceiling as I jumped from the bed, hitting the light switch and throwing off the covers in the process.

To my utter astonishment, there was the sleeping form of Roguemon lying in my bed.

He sprang awake from the lights, and yelled out, "LUCEMON!" Jumping to his feet and pulling out his dagger, he was ready to attack. Then he regained his senses, and calmed down. Looking at me, he said as if he said it everyday, "Morning."

I didn't know what to say, so I was looking pretty stupid with my mouth hung open.

He just yawned. "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm in the Real World. I'm not supposed to be real. Blah blah blah. Deal with it. Enough with the gawking already. It's awkward. How do you feel after our ordeal last night?"

I stopped said gawking. It seemed that whatever occurrence had allowed him to appear in the real world could be worked out later. And I realized that it was a bit awkward. "Fine, I guess." I was lying, of course. My forehead was getting to the intolerable level of pain that I reserved for the heavy duty medicine.

He hopped out of bed, and pointed at the computer desk. "You were holding that device right there when I came to. I put it on the desk for you."

The sight of said item made me want to laugh hysterically. I even forgot the throbbing pain in my forehead. Never I my wildest dreams did I ever think I would see that item in my possession. I walked over to the desk, and examined it.

It was a digivice of course. Irony played a trick on me, as the digivice was of the same design as the one from season three of the show. Which just happened to be my favorite season. It was an oddly shaped thing, with an ovular portion that was centered around the small screen with an ornamental violet circle circling the screen area, a short rectangle portion jutting from the bottom of the oval which contained the 4 violet buttons assembled in a crosshair. A medium sized card scanner extended from the left of the oval. It was colored a deep violet, which was also my favorite shade of my favorite color. A small strap extending from the top was also violet in color.

I gleefully picked up the digivice, found an old, black shoelace from a shoe in the closet. Carefully threading the lace through the strap on the digivice, I tied it into a necklace of sorts and set it back on the desk.

As if on cue, Roguemon's stomach growled in a bid for food. His hand shot to his stomach, attempting to hide the sound. He looked up at me, and laughed as he said, "Got any food?"

I started to reply, but then my stomach growled as well. My hands went behind my head, and I laughed too. "Let's get some breakfast."

After a few bowls of cereal and some toast, our stomachs were satisfied once again.

As I was cleaning up, Roguemon asked, "What now?"

I set down my bowl into the sink, and faced him, looking confused. "What do you mean?"

He was looking out the window. "What are we going to do now?"

I saw the look of excitement within his gaze outside. He obviously wanted to experience the Real World. I would have been the same way if I was him, so it was settled. "Why don't we go to the mall?"

He looked at me in confusion, saying, "What's a mall?"

"It's a place where humans shop, eat, and hang out." Then I realized something. "Wait, you need a disguise. I don't know how people will react to a walking, talking raccoon…"

He watched in confusion while I gathered a set of clothes which I then threw at his feet.

"What are these for?" he asked, holding up a sweatshirt.

"A disguise," I said with a grin on my face.

* * *

Sonya desperately wanted a break.

She and the other maintenance people had spent all night trying to figure out what went wrong with the servers. It didn't make any sense. One minute, they were perfectly fine, and the next minute, all but one was dead.

Which was another thing. The logs from that server showed that a single computer had been playing the game on it while all the other servers were dead. Yet the logs from the other server were gone. Vanished without a trace.

Ron kept going on and on about "I'm going to strangle whoever did this" and "We better be getting overtime". All his fussing was giving her a headache.

But she had one last thing to do before she could have her break. She brought up the data of this "2chaotic" person that had been connected from the server. It seemed innocent enough.

Luckily, the server had saved the video of his entire time of being logged in. Sonya had thought it was weird to have a recording function in an MMO, but the development team insisted that it was essential to "stop cheaters".

The good majority of the video was didn't arouse any suspicion. However, when she reached the last 2 minutes, everything changed. She watched as Lucemon battered Roguemon around, and she watched Seth's reactions to it all.

But she couldn't believe what she was seeing when Lucemon used his "Destiny Bind" attack. She watched in unbelief as a hexagram shot out of the webcam and hit Seth square in the chest. She watched him cringe in pain as Roguemon was hit around.

That wasn't even the craziest part. She watched Seth as Lucemon began charging up his "INSERT ATTACK HERE". He was fumbling around on the desk, trying to grasp a card. At first she thought it was a trick of the lights, but after playing it again and again, she came to the realization that Seth's card had changed from a speed boost to a holographic blue card.

Then as he scanned it, Roguemon's body disappeared from the game, and reappeared on Seth's bed.

Now she really needed that break.

* * *

Cars are wondrous machines. They let you travel anywhere where roads are extremely easily and quickly. And considering that there was no subway system in Indianapolis, cars were the main method of transportation around here. If traffic cooperated, we could get to the mall in around 25 minutes.

Ah, if only I had a car.

I crashed to the ground with a loud "ooof" as I finished pulling out my old pair of skates. That's right. I skated wherever I needed to go. It worked really well because Indianapolis was a car city. The only people who walked were the ones that had to. And even then, those people took the bus system. However, I lived outside of the bus zone, so I had to skate most of the way.

I spent several minutes trying to show Roguemon how to skate. Thankfully, he was a fast learner, and we were skating towards downtown by 7 AM.

He was donning his new disguise. It wasn't much of one, but it would have to do until better could be acquired. It consisted of a grey hoodie, grey sweatpants, old socks with holes cut in them for his claws, mittens, a huge scarf wrapped around his face to hide his muzzle, and a black bandana to hide his raccoon ears. I couldn't easily tell he wasn't human, and I just hoped no one else would be able to either.

* * *

The Real World sure was something else.

Roguemon'd heard about cars in the digiworld, but he'd actually never seen one. But here, they were everywhere he looked, and there were so many of them! Each one was different colors and styles. And they all went so much faster than these weird skates.

But that wasn't what he was focused on. The aromas of the city were wafting through his nose, drawing his attention away from everything else. He could smell food amid all the smoke the cars gave off, and whew did it smell amazing! It was so amazing that he stopped focusing on the sidewalk, and collided with a light pole which sent him tumbling sideways into Seth. Who in turn collided with the ground.

Seth just stood up and asked in a calm yet frustrated tone, "Why in the world would you hit the pole?"

Roguemon said in defense, "I was distracted."

"With what?"

Roguemon took another over-eager sample of the air. "Foooooooooooood."

Seth couldn't keep a straight face. He chuckled as he said, "Seems the TV shows had something right."

"Wait, what?"

* * *

"You incompetent fool! You were told not to attack him until the preparations were complete! Now look what your insolence has brought!" These harsh words came from an equally harsh and deep voice. If words could kill, Lucemon would be dying right now.

Lucemon knelt even lower to hide his scornful gaze. "I am sorry, my lord, but no one could have foreseen this."

Lightning flash outside the windows illuminating the room. The room wasn't much, only a single stone altar stood in the midst of the small stone room. Yet this was enough to still the air.

Shadows stemmed from behind the altar, and they hid their master well. Even the fierce lightning couldn't disperse them.

The voice replied, "Perhaps you are correct. I will forgive your sin for now, but

any further transgression, and your end is near. Now leave me."

Lucemon stood with his gaze still at the floor. Bowing, he did as commanded.

He smiled as the door shut behind him. His every step was calculated, and each sound echoed against the walls. The echo was a perfect metronome for his thoughts.

_Step._

He would have his vengeance upon Seth for making a fool of him, but how to go about it?

_Step._

There was always the traditional torture.

_Step._

No…

_Step. _

No…

_Step._

No…

_Step._

None of these ideas could sate Lucemon's desire…

_Step._

_Step._

The footsteps stopped.

Lucemon's smile morphed into half-human, half-demon veracious grin.

Yes…that would do nicely.

* * *

One fed digimon later, we were back on the road again. Or at least the sidewalk. While we were skating towards the closest bus stop, Roguemon was wrapping his head around the real world's concept of Digimon

"Let me get this straight. Digimon is just a TV show and game for the real world?"

I quickly glanced back at Roguemon over my shoulder, gave him a thumbs up along with a cheesy smile. "Not anymore."

I couldn't see it, but Roguemon grinned under his mask.

The rest of the trip was spent with me explaining to Roguemon about how cars worked, different kinds of food, airplanes, the skyscrapers that you could see in the distance, more food, why there were so many different stores around, and of course, food.

Thankfully, this helped pass the time, and we reached the bus stop right as a bus was pulling up.

Roguemon commented in awe, "Wow, that looks like a one-car Trailmon."

As we boarded the train, I didn't notice a fellow teenager behind me. If I'd seen him, I would have known better than to let him get so close. He was extremely shady looking in his baggy clothing and mirrored sunglasses. He was obviously up to no good because he had that slight malicious stealth in his step that could only belong to a thief.

The teenager boarded the bus, and sat directly behind Roguemon and me.

The bus pulled away to follow its normal route downtown. All the while, Roguemon took in the sights of the city. Which wasn't much other than a Spanish-speaking neighborhood until we crossed the White River which was the threshold for the downtown district.

Immediately, Roguemon's head began turning every which way, and I could easily tell he was in a state of wonder. He'd probably never seen a skyscraper before, and there were plenty of them to look at. As the bus passed through Monument Circle (The center of Indianapolis), he "wow"ed at the massive, intricate, and beautiful statue containing the war memorial plaques.

However, the bus abruptly came to a halt, and the driver yelled, "Circle Center mall!" She was obviously bored at her job. But then again, who wouldn't be with a job like that?

We made our way off the bus, and began walking towards one of the huge mall's numerous entrances.

At which point I felt a hand ever so gently reach into my back pocket.

* * *

**Chaotic's Comments:**

Yes, I know, I still haven't got any other major characters yet. Deal with it. You're not the one telling the story. That's my job.

But we will introduce one next chapter.

As you can see, we have Seth and Roguemon going to the mall of all places, Sonya finding out about Seth and Roguemon, Lucemon manically plotting something maniacal and probably evil and maniacal (I'll never telllllll…), and Seth's getting robbed.

Yes I like the word maniacal. It just rolls off the tongue. Say it: "Maniacal." See what I mean? Use it in normal conversation and people think you're smarter. BIG WORDS ROCK!

Okay, so enough with my crazy antics, see you next chapter.


	4. Irony is at it again

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything associated/attributed to it.

**Chapter 4: Irony is at it again**

I can say I've never actually been robbed before. People have tried, but I've hardwired my body to reach my hand back and touch my wallet every time my arms swing. So by the time they reach their hand in, and try to pull it out, I've already felt their hand in my pocket. Which immediately triggers the defensive motion of a spinning punch to any potential thief's face.

This time was exactly the same.

My left hand, upon being informed of a threat to my wallet, spun with my body and lunged at the closest person behind me. Except this time the perpetrator had already ducked, and was turning to run.

Roguemon apparently noticed the actions right after I turned around. "What's going on?" he said in confusion.

I didn't dare advert my eyes from my escaping assailant. It was too easy to lose someone here. Especially since there was an abnormally high amount of people around for some reason. "Catch that guy!" I said pointing.

Roguemon immediately began dashing after him with me bringing up the rear. The thief was shoving people away as he made his way to an alleyway judging by his direction. If he made it there, it was a straight shot to the next street and an ample chance for him to lose us.

My luck was laughing at me. I was in deadlock with the crowd, (because I hate shoving people) and I was going to be of no use. By the time I would get close to getting out of the crowd, the thief would have surely made his escape. Which meant Roguemon was my only hope.

Luckily, he was making better progress that I was. However, he was still in the same predicament I was. Great.

This was a perfect time to test my digivice. Thankfully, I had brought my digivice with me, along with a few choice cards which I pulled from my front pockets. I rapidly found the one I wanted, and slashed it through the reader, which awkwardly gave of a few red flashes of light.

I yelled, "Roguemon, jump out of this crowd and chase him down!"

He leaped into the air amid much gasping from the crowd, and landed gracefully kneeling in front of the alleyway. "Oh yeah, feel that power," he said to no one in particular. Quickly locating the retreating thief, he used the speed from the card to close the distance in just seconds. He tackled the thief to the ground, ripping the thief's sweatshirt in the process. He pinned the thief, and stared at him from behind the mask.

The thief replied from his somehow-still-attached sunglasses, "H...H...How did you…do that?"

"What? Oh, you mean catching your sorry behind?" he said in confidence.

I finally broke through the crowd, and sighed my relief as I saw Roguemon pinning the assailant. I ran over with digivice still in hand.

The thief somehow freed a hand, and used Roguemon's brief moment of surprise to rip the mask from Roguemon's face. His eyes widened as he processes what he was seeing. Then he glanced at me, and his eyes settled on my digivice.

"No…it can't be. You're a…a…" he stuttered.

Roguemon smiled as he said, "Digimon."

I threw my arms into the air and sighed. "Great." I retrieved my wallet from the thief's now-slack hands. He was obviously in complete shock from the realization that Digimon were real. I didn't blame him. I felt the same way last night, only my experience was a little more painful than his.

Roguemon removed his grip, reapplied his mask, and stood over the thief.

We endured silence for a few moments, and I finally registered the thief's features. He looked to be the same height as me, only skinnier and even less muscular (which didn't leave him with much but a frail looking body). His black hair was much thicker and unrulier than mine, and his hazel eyes still were wide in shock. His clothing gave away his poverty; they were in complete tatters and had faded too much to have any color. I almost felt sorry for him.

I was fed up with waiting. With Roguemon being an intimidator, I proceeded to interrogate him. "Why did you try to steal my wallet?" I said with anger in my voice.

He finally returned to reality, and his face took on a condescending look. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Where do you live?"

He quickly replied, "That's an odd question, but if you must know, I don't live anywhere in particular. The street is my home."

Ahh, great. Now pity conflicted with my feelings of resentment, and unfortunately, pity was winning. "What's your name, thief?"

He cautiously said, "Troy."

Pity struck the final blow. "Well, Troy, how about I bribe you with some lunch?" I asked, extending my hand to help him up.

Troy anxiously looked at the frowning Roguemon, and grabbed my hand. "Did pity play in my favor?" he asked with a grin on his face as I helped him up.

I just laughed.

* * *

Ronald spit his coffee out dramatically. "You can't be serious, Sonya! This is madness!"

Sonya rubbed her temples from the headache she was getting. "This is REALITY!" she said chuckling, getting a frown from Ronald. She continued, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But really sir, this footage isn't doctored. I got it from the server log directly."

Ronald slowly took another sip of coffee. Setting his cup back on his desk, and depositing his hands back in his lap, he said, "Even so, there's no way this is possible. Someone must have hacked it. I mean, look at the situation, Sonya. Isn't it mysterious that only one server survived, and that this one server had a lone computer connected to the game on it?"

Sonya leaned forward. "Which is precisely why I am going to go to his house after work."

Ronald sighed in frustration. "I'm telling you, they aren't real. But fine, go ahead. Make a fool of yourself."

Sonya rose and turned to exit Ronald's office.

Ronald finished, "Get me another coffee would you? I need all the caffeine I can get before I go see the higher-ups."

Sonya sighed. She needed another break.

* * *

Roguemon was in paradise. All the smells of the food court threatened to overload his nostrils with their sweet scent. Everywhere he looked contained some kind of new food that looked so good. He could barely restrain himself from running to the nearest stall like a madman and gorging himself.

But he had no money, so he would have to wait for Seth and this "Troy" person to pick a stall.

Seth started, "How about some Chinese?"

Troy shrugged as he smiled an oddly mischievous smile. "Beggars can't be choosers."

Seth caught the pun. "Chinese it is then."

Roguemon forced himself to remain calm while he anxiously waited to place his order. Seth had gotten a plate of rice and something called "General Tso's Chicken" while Troy ordered noodles alongside a few somethings called "Eggrolls", but none of their orders even touched upon the best smelling stuff. Which Roguemon proceeded to choose for his meal. He ordered "Sweet and Sour Chicken, Teriyaki Steak, and Bourbon Chicken" with some rice.

Seth paid for the meal, and they all sat down to eat. Roguemon lifted his mask ever so slightly, and eyed the food. The steaming plate of food glistened in the glare of the lights making it even more appealing. Savoring one last whiff of the lovely food, he began stuffing himself.

The moment the taste reached his brain, he swooned. He'd never tasted anything as good as this ever before. Nothing even came close. Which made him eat even faster.

Seth smiled at these actions. "Good?"

Roguemon grunted his approval. Talk could wait.

It was food time.

* * *

While Roguemon was busy chowing down, I tried for a conversation with Troy. "So...uhh...how do you know about digimon if you're…uhh…"

Troy's hand cut me off. "I do not mind. Reality shouldn't be ignored. To answer your question, let me start at the beginning. I resided in an orphanage for the first 13 years of my meager life. Next door to the orphanage was a library which I have spent innumerable hours studying in. The library was my only connection to the outside world because the orphanage's managers apparently did not believe in trying to educate us."

I cut in, "So, how did you learn about digimon from a library?"

He tilted his head and replied, "Interruptions ruin conversations you know."

I waved my hands in defense. "Sorry, sorry, I'll shut up."

He leaned back in his chair. "Many thanks. The library was equipped with the internet around 5 years ago, and I continued my studies from there. Which included Japanese anime. I have laid out your answer. Now, would you consider informing me about Roguemon here?"

So while we ate our meals, I proceeded to explain the events leading up to Roguemon appearing in the real world. He cautiously picked at his salad, as if he didn't trust it, while still looking interested the entire time. By the time I had finished, everyone was done eating (including Roguemon who was rubbing his stomach in satisfaction.).

Troy responded, "Well now that I've made your acquaintances, I do believe I will accompany you from now on."

This guy really needed to stop reading the dictionary. "So we're friends then?" I asked, extending a hand across the table.

He accepted the gesture, saying, "Something similar to that, yes."

I was confused. "What do you mean by 'similar'?"

He looked towards the floor, and his hair shadowed his eyes. "My home exists on the streets of the mall, and I am certain that you will not want to be seen with the likes of a disgraceful thief." He looked up and sighed. "Alas, 'tis my fate to find a digimon tamer, and be forced to part from them..."

This guy was good at playing the pity card. Scary good. Unfortunately, that happened to be one of my weaknesses... "I'll tell you what. How about you come home with me and Roguemon till Sunday?"

His face lit up like a child who was watching a magic show for only a brief moment, but he quickly reverted to his normal, apathetic state. "What of your parents? Surly they won't like the idea of a homeless person in their home."

I smiled devilously, "They're out of town for the week."

Troy mirrored my grin.

With the completion of our meal and coversation came the next event for the day. The Circle Center mall was huge and contained numerous stores, a movie theater, and the thing that I brought Roguemon here for. The arcade.

On the top floor of the mall, nestled into an almost-hidden spot, was the arcade that I blew most of my money that I allotted for recreation. (I budgeted my spending money like a good teenager.) The arcade took up a good portion of the area above the food court, but for some reason was a lot smaller than it looked.

It contained your average stuff you'd expect in the arcade: A DDR machine, a handful of fighter games, a whole row of zombie shooting games, basketball games, ski ball, and claw games amongst other games. However, unlike most other arcades, it contained 6 racing machines that were fashioned like NASCAR cars which were all interlinked. Still, it wasn't what I'd consider amazing, but it would do for Roguemon's first time. I just hoped he would like playing games…

"Come on guys, time to hit up the arcade," I announced, getting up from the table.

Roguemon asked, tilting his head, 'What's an arcade?"

I said in reply, "A place where people pay to play arcade machines."

He asked again, "What's an arcade machine?"

* * *

Finally, Sonya was able to relax.

She would always come here when she needed to just get away from her problems. And a heaping plate of problems were just dropped on her plate, so here she was. At the arcade in Circle Center mall.

She always sat in a dark corner of the arcade playing pinball, and today was no different. She just sat there, chipping away at the difference between her score and the high score. Her focus on the machine was quickly becoming complete.

Then she heard the word that she really didn't want to hear right now.

"…Roguemon."

She flinched at the word, and with her focus temporarily leaving her, the pinball dropped slid neatly between her flippers. Now annoyed, she diverted her attention towards the source of her distraction.

"How do you play?" said a man dressed in a baggy running outfit that seemed to large for him. He had a hoodie on, and the hood covered his head. His face, oddly enough, was covered by a hockey mask.

This struck Sonya as odd, considering that wearing a mask in public usually meant you were up to no good. She listened on.

"You must aim this gun at an infected person, and constrict the trigger to shoot them," said a black haired teenager, handing the masked man the gun.

Apparently, Sonya was hearing things. With no further mention of "Roguemon", she started to turn back to her machine. However, she did a double take when she saw the third teenager standing next to the masked person. Her mouth hung open as she realized that she had seen his face before…

It had to be Seth.

She stared long at his visage, trying to unconvinced herself that it was him. However, her suspicion was confirmed when she saw the faint red "X" cut in his forehead.

So her problem had found her before she had a chance to go looking for it.

But why was he with this masked person, and who was the black hair kid? She had no idea as to the answer to the second question, but her first guess at the first made her wish she hadn't.

The only thing that came to mind was that under that mask might be the face of a digimon.

She tried to dismiss the thought as hard as she could, but curiosity was getting the best of her. She began inching towards the group as sneakily as she could. Her heart beat faster, and her breathing increased as she crept behind the masked person. She finally found herself within arms reach of him, and she hadn't yet been noticed by any of them.

Her hand trembled as it reached for the corner of the mask. Still no one noticed her as they played their zombie game.

Her fingers closed on the plastic mask, and she ripped it to the ground.

The now-unmasked man turned, and Sonya gasped even though she half knew what to expect.

Standing before her, was the face of a humanoid raccoon.

* * *

"Sir, I am sorry to report that the 38th squad has been annihilated," said Flamedramon, kneeling out of respect.

"It seems the darkness approaches faster than I anticipated," replied Magnangemon.

"Then we need to move the 26th squad to the 18th outpost for extra protection," commented Leomon.

"No, Leomon, that would leave the Dawn Mountain pass more vulnerable," countered Magnangemon.

Flamdramon stood and asked, "What are we going to do then sir? The enemy will march to our doorsteps if we let them continue like this."

Magnangemon's gaze turned from Flamdramon to the floor. He knew that all too well, but there was nothing they could do to stop them. Every squad and battalion they had was deployed along the numerous routes to Root City. If they moved even one squad, they were sending the enemy an open invitation to come inhabit the outlying towns. Magnangemon would not allow anymore of his people to be subjected to the dark menace that encroached along their borders. Not even one person.

But his strategy of enforcing every square inch of the entire border was failing. The enemy had already overrun an eighth of the towns forcing him to deploy more and more troops in places that weren't strategically advantageous.

Suddenly, a Ninjamon came bursting through the doors yelling, "Sir Magnangemon! We've located the human Lucemon attacked!" He ran over to Magnangemon's chair, handed him a paper, and kneeled before him, panting.

Mangangemon inspected the writing on the page, and commanded, "Bring me Seth Davis!"

* * *

**Chaotic's Notes:**

Definitely not your average Monday. Seth skates 12 or so miles to a bus stop, gets robbed, buys his thief lunch, and is ordered to be tracked down (without his knowledge of course). But as unrealistic such events may seem, deal with it. It's a story. I'm trying to build a little suspense along with the plot, and it may take a few chapters longer than other people can do it in. I'm not the best writer in the world.

I'm not entirely sure why I had Seth and Roguemon go to the mall, but I winged it anyway. That's how I write. By winging things. I really don't know how to outline a plot effectively, so if someone wants to help me….(I'm always open for any kind of help)

I had two other ideas for this chapter. But I won't tell you what they are. That would ruin what little foreshadowing I have.

So until next chapter, "You need to calm down."


	5. This isn't your everyday irony

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything associated/attributed to it.

**Chapter 5- This isn't your everyday irony. This is…Advanced Irony.**

Apparently, personal space doesn't mean much to people anymore.

Some lady just sneaked up on Roguemon and took off his mask for no apparent reason while we were entranced in a zombie killing arcade game.

And here she was, staring at his furry raccoon-like face with an extremely astonished look on hers. She took a few steps backward until she found a wall to support herself on. She slowly slid to the ground, and muttered, "This…changes everything."

With Roguemon and Troy unconviently surprised, I asked the 30-ish looking lady, "Why in the world did you do that, and what do you mean 'this changes everything'?"

She hesitated, and then said casually, "I know what happened to you last night, Seth."

Roguemon realized his face was uncovered, and reapplied the mask to his face.

And we stared at the woman for another few extremely awkward moments. It was starting to seem that awkward silence was going to be commonplace from now on.

I finally asked the lady, "How do you know that?"

Her gaze ascended to my face. "It's a long story. Why don't I explain it to you while I take you back to my work?"

Troy asked the obvious question. "And why, may I inquire, do you want us to come with you, a person that we've only just met and have no idea as to your identity or motives?"

She just stared at Troy like he was dumb. Which was a tad bit ironic. She replied, "I work for Integral Designs and…"

"You mean that you work for the company that made the Digimon World: Reality game?!" I interjected.

"Yes, that's right. And I think that you and…Roguemon here need to come back to help us figure out some things," she finished.

That was all the reasoning I needed. Being the videogame fanatic I was, visiting the company that made my favorite games, (including the one that spewed Roguemon out of the screen at me) was a dream come true. I could hardly contain my excitement.

But, of course, that was not the only reason. If they were the makers of the game, then they might know more about the digital world, and maybe why Roguemon had appeared here. "Okay, we'll come with you," I said, walking over to help whoever she was off the ground.

Troy looked flabbergasted. "You're really going with her? You don't even know her name! She might be a criminal for all you know!"

"I didn't know you either, and look where we are now," I countered with a smirk on my face. That shut Troy up quite nicely. I extended a helping hand to the woman, who looked on with a confused look.

Grabbing it, she hauled herself up. "Thank you. My name is Sonya. Sonya Chronton."

Since she obviously knew Roguemon and myself, "That is Troy," I said pointing. Troy waved expertly in response.

Sonya began, "So you'll come then? Just like that?" You could tell she was a bit confused as to why I would come so easily, although less so than Troy. But she recomposed herself all the same.

But then again, that was me. I loved ironic situations. And irony was abundant lately.

I nodded and said, "Well, the arcade will be here later. Let's go shall we?"

So without another word, although there were a few condescending looks from Troy, we set out for the parking garage where Sonya's car was parked. As we weaved through the crowds of the mall, my body set itself on autopilot as my mind wandered over the events of the past two days.

I'd learned that Digimon was a whole lot more than a game, and was almost killed straight afterward. Then I somehow became a digimon tamer, got a raccoon digimon for a partner, befriended a thief, and was now on my way to see the company that made the game which started this whole mess in the first place. Not that I thought it was a mess, it's just that I had a really bad feeling that things were about to go downhill really fast.

I was still thanking my luck though. After all, it wasn't ever day that you were thrown into miraculous events like these. I'd wanted something as unnatural as this to happen to me my entire life. I never really knew what made me fantasize about that idea, but I had a hunch that my lack of friends at school forced me to be an introvert.

But hey, if being an introvert got me into something this exciting, then I wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

Fog poured out of the same machine that Seth and friends had just been playing only minutes ago. It billowed throughout the arcade encasing every arcade machine and every person there with an unnatural mist. Sparks danced over the machines, casing people to scream and run in terror of the fog.

The fog stopped flowing at the door to the arcade. It just sat there as if that was its purpose.

In the fogged arcade, three unearthly shadows appeared on the floor, and quickly began growing. They rapidly took the form of three digimon, all three the same. After the shadows had finished taking form, the fog imploded back to its source just as quickly as it had come.

Standing in front of the machine where the fog poured from were now three digimon. Their small round heads had two arms and legs jutting from them. Their heads were mostly covered by a red cloth that extended to a point jutting from the top of their heads. Their shoulders had spiked armor on them, and the sheath of a katana sat on their backs.

These were without a doubt, Ninjamon.

The middle Ninjamon checked a small device on his wrist and said to the others, "Target has moved. Follow." Pointing in the direction of their target, the middle Ninjamon began his chase with the other two close behind. They leapt out the door of the arcade quickly enough that hardly anyone even noticed movement.

They fanned out through the mall, rapidly approaching the target. The target's signal was getting stronger with every jump they made. But none of them lingered in one spot long enough to be seen by anyone. Even if anyone did catch a glimpse of them, all they would see would be a faint movement of air, for the Ninjamon were far too fast for humans to recognize their presence.

The lead Ninjamon checked his locator again, only to find that the target was now moving much faster than before. At this rate, they were going to lose the signal. The lead Ninjamon lead his comrades to an exit of the building, and they made their way to a dark alley.

Knowing that his team would follow his lead, he climbed up to the top of the nearest building, and located the signal again. It was moving quickly to the south, and he motioned for his team to follow.

So they set out jumping from building to building, and began to close the distance between them and the target.

Fast.

* * *

"You seriously expect me to believe that you just became friends with the person who tried to rob you no less than two hours ago? Seriously? Really?" Sonya shook her in raw disbelief as she clutched the steering wheel to her company-owned Corvette.

I wouldn't have believed it myself if it hadn't have happened. "Yep, that's about it," I said smiling as I sat in the back seat next to Roguemon. I still don't know what possessed me to do it either…

Troy commented from the passenger seat as he admired the vehicle, "He speaks the truth."

She just shook her head. "Whatever. If you don't mind me changing the subject, how about we talk about last night there, Seth? What did you do to our servers?"

I figured somebody would ask that…"That was Lucemon's doing."

She started, "You expect me to beli…"

I cut her off. "Do you believe you have a raccoon digimon sitting behind you?"

That shut her up. Irony was becoming my answer for things as of late. It was quite convenient too.

After the usual awkward silence, Troy asked, "Why, may I ask, are we going to your company again? What can they inform us with?"

Sonya shrugged. "I don't really know myself, but consider this: If you were a company that made a game, and the game somehow came to life, wouldn't you want to know about it?"

Troy nodded agreement and began to look out the window, which induced another awkward silence.

I realized that Roguemon hadn't said a word this whole time, and I looked at him. He was happily looking out the window at the scenery, apparently easily amused with the transition from the skycrapers of downtown to the gradual greenery of the suburbs. Or it was because he was seeing it for the first time, and I just took it for granted. Yeah, it was probably more something like that.

He finally noticed me staring at him, and turned to say, "What?"

I laughed as I turned away.

He persisted. "What's so funny?"

"You're like a little kid staring out the window like that. I just thought it was funny."

"Well, it's not like I've ever seen it before," he countered.

As if on cue, his entire demeanor changed. His fur began standing on end, and he pulled out his dagger, growling the entire time as he stared out the back window.

I retreated back as far as I could, waiving my arms defensively. "Woah woah woah, I'm sorry. No need to get all aggressive."

He said in reply, "There's digimon chasing us."

Troy nearly snapped his neck as he turned around trying to look. "I see no one, much less any digimon."

Roguemon said, "They're coming up on us, fast. Three of them too."

I quickly asked, "Can we beat them?"

He shook his head. "Three on one? Are you stupid? We need to run away. Now."

Sonya laughed maniacally in excitement. "Fasten your seat belts boys; it's time we find out just how agile this Corvette is." She slammed on the accelerator, and the car lurched forward at breakneck (almost literally) speed.

I was thrown back into my seat as I attempted to put my seat belt on while Sonya began passing people on the highway. Bobbing in-between lanes, Sonya laughed as the speedometer climbed higher. "Now this is what I call rush hour!"

Roguemon said, "They're gaining on us."

Troy asked, "How do you know that?"

He pointed out the back window. "I'm not blind."

I turned and looked. Sure enough, there were three barely detectable figures running at full speed towards us. I recognized them as Ninjamon immediately, but I pulled out my digivice just to be sure.

To my amazement (even though I figured it would happen), a circular, holographic image sprang from the device displaying some information:

**Ninjamon:**

**Champion-Level Mutant Digimon**

**Attacks: Shuriken Throw, Dancing Leaves**

"Well, that's nice to know," I chuckled. Turning my attention back to the rapidly approaching Ninjamon, I watched as the closest one jumped high into the air, and landed on the roof of the car making a nice dent in the top.

Sonya reacted by screaming, "WE JUST GOT THIS CAR YESTURDAY!" as she slammed on the breaks, which in turn sent the Ninjamon rolling off the roof from the sudden change in momentum.

In response, the other two Ninjamon leaped in the air around both sides of the vehicle, and yelled in unison, "Shuriken Throw!" They both pulled two shurikens from somewhere behind their back, and launched them at the car.

Troy yelled, "Incoming!" and we all braced for the flying shurikens to come slicing throw the windows.

But they didn't. Instead, four distinct BANGs erupted from below the car, and the car began grinding against the asphalt.

Sonya yelled the obvious, "They hit the tires!" With no more control over the vehicle, Sonya just held on to the steering wheel for dear life as we spun out of control at high speed.

I clenched the door handle with a death grip as the horizon spun counter-clockwise around me, the centripetal force holding me against the door.

I don't know if it was instinct or the force of the car, but Roguemon dove/fell over to me and clutched me tight.

The car finally stopped with a sudden jolt that about gave me whiplash.

We all sat there for a few moments, fading between dizziness and nausea. Troy spoke up first while rubbing his temples, "That was exciting, now wasn't it?"

"You don't do that everyday," commented Sonya who was fighting back the urge to puke.

"Let's never do that again," I added.

"I never want to ride in a car ever again," said Roguemon, clambering off me.

I undid my seatbelt, and casually opened the door…Only to be yanked out of the car by a Ninjamon.

Roguemon leaped out of the car in response, and his dagger casting a glare into the eyes of the Ninjamon who was holding me. The Ninjamon held his free hand up to block the glare, and soon realized his mistake as Roguemon kicked him in the shoulder, sending the Ninjamon wheeling to the ground. I was about to fall, but Roguemon steadied me as the other two Ninjamon surrounded us.

I immediately pulled a card from my pocket, and luckily, it was a much needed speed card. If we were to have any chance at winning, Roguemon was going to have to outspeed these champion level digimon. Considering they were "Ninja"mon, I knew this was only possible by using cards.

The two Ninjamon stared at us as they drew their katanas from their sheaths. Roguemon and I stared back, with Roguemon holding his dagger in position to parry, and I stood ready to slash my card.

No one stirred. Not even the wind dared to break the tension in the air at the moment.

Then just as I was about to slash my card through my digivice, the Ninjamon that Roguemon kicked away yelled, "We did not come to fight you! Comrades, sheath you weapons!" The two Ninjamon obeyed.

I still held the card ready, as if it was going to protect me. "Well, your track record says otherwise," I said rolling my eyes.

The obvious leader of the three (the one Roguemon kicked) stepped forward and said, "We have come to deliver a message." He pulled a small scroll from behind him and handed it to me, kneeling as he did so.

Troy finally scrambled out of the car, fists up and ready to fight, but after he noticed the Ninjamon handing me the scroll, he chuckled mischievously. "Interesting…"

Sonya also got out, and was badly trying to hold back her anger. "If I had my pistol with me," she muttered, until she saw what was going on. "Hey, what's going on?"

I accepted the scroll, and quickly opened it. The scroll was tinted a nice golden brown, and the paper felt more like parchment which gave it that rustic feel. The text was written in a surprisingly easy to read font.

I read out loud:

_Dear Seth Davis,_

_I am Magnangemon, leader of the great Root City. It has come to my attention that the demonic Lucemon recently attacked you in your own home. I am deeply troubled by this recent aggression, and need to speak with you personally regarding this manner. I am also aware of the appearance of Roguemon, and would like to speak with him as well._

_I have sent these three Ninjamon to be your escort to the Digital World, and I would ask that you accept my invitation immediately and travel here promptly. Time is of the essence. _

_Good Luck,_

_Magnangemon _

I was in shock. This was like a dream come true (and I had many dreams about this, trust me.). I just stood there, dumbfounded, holding the smooth scroll in my quivering hands.

Troy actually clapped. Chuckling, he said, "Now that is the reason for the word 'Irony'!"

Sonya was speechless.

Roguemon asked much to everyone's amazement, "Will there be food?"

This hilarious comment brought me back to reality.

The lead Ninjamon stopped kneeling, and asked, "Will you accompany us back to Root City?" Everyone looked at me as if the world depended on my answer. Who knows? It just might have, given the events of the past 24 hours.

So, in response, I said, "Heck yeah!"

The Ninjamon smiled for the first time, and the leader spoke, "Good. Now if you'll come with us…"

I interrupted, "Woah, slow down there. I need to prepare for a trip like this, and besides, I still have a potentially important errand to run." I looked to Sonya. "Right?"

She said with a serious look on her face, "Now more than ever. But now that my car is…hmm…oh wait, the building is right there." She pointed to a small building just a few miles away. "It wouldn't be a long walk, and after we're done there, I'll drive you kids home."

Troy tried to be the voice of reason. "Wait, so you're going to the Digital World, just like that!? You can't be sure that it isn't utterly dangerous!" He turned to Sonya. "And you consider this acceptable behavior?"

Sonya shrugged, "He has an escort…"

I replied, "Yes, Troy. Just like that." I shrugged and turned away saying, "You act like you don't want to come."

Troy slightly twitched. He knew I'd won this round. "Fine, have it your way. But next time a choice must be made, it is rightfully mine to make."

The lead Ninjamon began to protest, "The message dictates that…"

I cut him off with an almost evil look on my face, "He comes or I stay here."

Ninjamon cringed as he thought it over, and replied as he shrugged, "As you wish."

There sure was a lot of shrugging going on lately. Unfortunately, I heard a car coming down the road, threatening to throw a wrench in the works if they saw the ragtag group of digimon and the ruined Corvette.

It was time to make our escape.

* * *

**Chaotic Notes: ** OH SNAP IT'S THE PLOT!

I never thought I'd actually come up with one, but I found the correct puzzle pieces. I sat long and hard, thinking of how I should weave my plotline. Then I listened to a little dragonforce music (good stuff, btw. Go itunes that stuff), and all was made relatively less foggy. It's still pretty foggy, but at least I know a few of the major plot twists now.

Now, for my next chapter, I'm going to need someone to send me a profile for a female character (digidestined and high school age) that would go well with Seth and Troy here. Or else I'll have to make a character up myself, and well, that may get a little messy since I am not a woman.

Well, this concludes my first 5 chapters that I made sure were complete before I began uploading. After all, just having the first chapter to read doesn't tell you crap right?

It does you say?

Well, in the words of Little Kuriboh, "Screw the rules. I have money."

(I'm going to test out a new plot organization and development process today, so the next update may take a few days.)


	6. The Irony Keeps Coming

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything associated with it.

I know, it's been awhile. But, in the meantime, my laptop on which I wrote this decided that it did not like the floppy disks I put in it anymore. So I went out and bought the lovely Acer Aspire One laptop, and I love it. Just to put a plug in, for $300, you too can have a laptop that has most of the abilities of a desktop computer (except for no CD drive, but that is what daemon tools is for.).

Now, on with the story.

**Chapter 6 – The Irony keeps coming. Or what to do when your game comes to life.**

When someone says the word "stealth" to you, surely a spy, ninja, or a general act of sneaking around nonchalantly comes to mind yes?

Not in this situation. In fact, stealth was definitely not the adjective I'd use to describe how we arrived at the Integral Designs building. If I had to describe it, I'd use the term "anti-stealthy".

You'd think with three Ninjamon accompanying us, we'd be able to achieve some desirable level of sneakiness.

Hehe. No.

Upon hearing an approaching car that would give us unwanted attention had it's driver or passengers seen us, we all made a mad dash for a nearby patch of woods that trailed behind an in-construction suburb. The construction site was empty thankfully, but that didn't mean the coast was clear.

We had a mile to travel. A mile filled with many looks over shoulders and such sneaky acts. Here's where the anti-sneak comes in though. As we neared the end of the suburb, the three Ninjamon jumped onto a roof that only had the timbers freshly attached together by the looks of them. However, the bad construction became obvious, as the whole roof structure came tumbling down as soon as the Ninjamon landed on them.

Definitely, NOT sneaky. The noise it made was probably heard for miles, and the sudden jolt forced us to run for our lives. We quickly tried to jumped the fence in between the houses and the small patch of woods behind it, but the fence responded by falling down, making yet another large noise.

Of course, it would be too simple for us to just be able to quickly walk to the company complex without any mishaps.

So, instead we made a mad dash that would have made my track coach proud. Roguemon was on all fours, and the three Ninjamon each assisted Sonya, Troy, and I by almost carrying us towards our destination. If I hadn't been so focused on the current highly-stressful situation, I would have very much enjoyed the extra speed the Ninjamon provided. For their size, they were amazingly fast, a fact that they had already proven by catching us in the first place.

By some strange act of luck, we did however, reach the entrance to the fenced complex without incident. I did take a moment to examine it during the dash to get inside, and it definitely earned the term "complex".

The place itself consisted of three buildings, with the middle one being the tallest. They were the kind of newfangled, modern structures that made you go "wow" when you seen them. The two side structures were considerable smaller than the middle, but they looked like a right triangle, with the points aimed at the middle building. The middle building completed the point, and finished the triangle look.

I had no idea why the place looked like that, but I was certain that it would be explained soon enough.

As we reached the sliding glass doors, Sonya exclaimed, "Arg! The secretary! I totally forgot!"

Too late. The female secretary who looked like she should have been a librarian dropped her cup of coffee when she saw us. Her face said it all as she stared at the slightly dirty bunch of people and digimon.

However, her surprise quickly wore off. She stood up, exposing her Renamon long-sleeve shirt, and said, "Sonya...what's going on?"

We quickly piled inside the decently-sized entrance, and began hunching over, panting from the past ten minutes. Sonya regained her composure quickly however, and she began to introduce us. Pointing appropriately, she said, "Jen, this is Seth, his partner Roguemon, Troy, and three Ninjamon."

Jen went back to her surprised mode again for a few moments as she obviously mulled over the consequences of what she had just heard. Then as if coming to some kind of life changing realization, her face lit up as she asked Roguemon, "Are you...a...digimon?"

Roguemon immediately responded, "Of course." Which in turn made Jen faint. Literally.

With the secretary down, we could speak a bit more freely. So I asked the obvious question. "What do we do now?"

It wasn't an obvious answer really. I mean, with the chance at going to the digital world (the place I'd dreamed about for years) so close to becoming a reality, I really didn't know why we were still here.

Sonya thought about it for a moment before replying, "Well, I had planned on presenting you and Roguemon to the development team to give them some idea on how to figure out how to fix our program. But since the Ninjamon here have proven that it probably isn't our program, I guess you could just show off for a few hours."

Show off? Normally, I wasn't the kind of person who would flaunt something openly (because continued flaunting made people dislike you...), but having my very own, one-of-a-kind, digimon partner would definitely make a few die-hard fans jealous. So, for once in my life, I was definitely going to show off. I wouldn't try to flaunt though. There was a difference.

Troy commented, "You know, I wouldn't advise that. The whole experience might inflate your ego."

Roguemon however, practically jumped at the idea. "I'd gladly sign some autographs."

The Ninjamon did not like this idea. The lead one said, "We should not be posing here wasting time."

Sonya retorted to him, "Sorry, but it will take about an hour to obtain another car with tinted windows. Till then, let me show you the company lounge. Follow me."

So, she lead down a few hallways full of closed doors (thankfully) to a medium sized room where a few tables, more than a few sofas, some fresh finger foods lying on the counters, and a few obviously tired workers sleeping on said sofas. She made us sit down, and told us, "Wait here. I'll come back as soon as I get us another car." Then she left.

Sitting in the room with four digimon surrounded by people I didn't know inside of the company who made the biggest digimon game in existence was a tad bit awkward, but I was getting used to awkward situations over the past few days.

In the down time, we feasted on the various peanuts, small fruits, chips, and cookies. It was extremely hilarious to watch the three Ninjamon examine the foods before seeing their faces miraculously change from their static scowl into a slight amazed look. Apparently, they liked the real world food quite nicely.

Then suddenly, Sonya's voice came over an unseen intercom system, and with a slight vengeful tone in her voice, she said, "Hey guys, this is Sonya. You all know about the server crash last night? Well, the rumors are true. I found the lone computer user and brought him here. He's in the middle building lounge right now. Good day."

As if on cue, I heard footsteps rapidly approaching, and the various people who were lying on the couches began to stir. I didn't know what Sonya was planning, but whatever it was, it wasn't good. I figured it was revenge for getting her car crashed, even if it wasn't hers to begin with.

I was soon going to find out how people were going to react to seeing real life digimon too.

Roguemon pretty much summed up my feelings, "Well, this ought to be fun."

The atmosphere immediately changed in the Integral Design complex with Sonya's announcement over the intercoms. Programmers, designers, artists, salesmen, executives, and of course, the maintenance team who spent so long trying to fix the servers just the night before all proceeded to go to the middle building's lounge to see just what happened last night.

One of the people who was most anxious to see just who was there was Kira.

Kira Trent was your average female teenager. If your standard of average meant being a tomboyish girl who would rather drive fast cars than go out with boys. She was a loner for the most part, and didn't have many friends. She thought it was better that way though, being a loner meant she didn't need other people for anything. Being self-sufficient was important to her.

However, self-sufficiency was easy, considering her father was the CEO of Integral Designs after all. She had an easy life compared to most people; her daddy's vast wealth saw to that. Yet, she felt like she didn't need the money, and tried not to use it as often as possible. She didn't like to be seen as the rich man's daughter by her peers, even though she didn't normally care what they thought of her. Being the rich man's daughter seemed to make people see her as weak and helpless.

Kira knew she was exactly the opposite though. Even though she didn't need to have a job, she forced her father to give her one at his company. She knew that if she allowed herself to live off her father, she'd never amount to anything on her own. So, now she worked as a programmer on the Digimon World project. She was only 16, but thanks to her tutorage, she could program just as well as the other people who had college degrees. And that was saying something.

Of course, she was a big fan of digimon too, maybe not as much as some of the people who worked here, but still enough to fit in. So when the video log of the events of last night's launch spread around the company, she was just as excited as the rest of them to find out just what happened.

She put on her light jacket (the building was quite cold this time of year) and proceeded to follow her teammates down to the lounge room. As she walked, she overheard some conversation.

"Do you really think it's true?"

"I don't know, I mean, it is kind of unrealistic."

Somebody else interjected, "But you and I both know that the video log wasn't altered. We checked it ourselves. It has to be true."

"But seriously? Real life digimon? That's the craziest thing I ever heard. In the words of Kazu himself, 'That's crazier than a soup sandwich' ".

It seemed that feelings were mixed on the issue. Kira had a feeling that everything would be settled soon enough though. She really hoped it was too; it was getting too hectic around here for anything else to go wrong.

There sure were a lot of people nearing the lounge though. It seemed that everyone wanted to see who it was, and the lounge probably wouldn't hold everyone at one time. So to make sure she would get a spot for herself, Kira began pushing her way through the crowded stairwell. The other people didn't seem to mind much because their conversations continued as normal.

She wasn't anywhere near the first one to the lounge, but luckily, there was enough room for her to squeeze inside.

She quickly located the center of attention by the angle of everyone's gaze. They were all staring at the six people standing on a table so that everyone could see them. And as soon as she saw them, her jaw dropped a few inches and a gasp left her lungs.

Standing on the table, were four creatures that Kira immediately knew as digimon. There was no other explanation. No costume could be so realistic, no hologram so animated. The rumors were true after all then.

Digimon were real.

Of course, Kira wasn't too phased by this. She'd wanted to believe the rumor, so she wasn't as surprised as most of the skeptics.

The room was pretty silent, save for a few gasps as more people entered the room, until one of the two boys standing next to the digimon yelled out, "Alright, well...uhh, I guess I should introduce us." Waving his hands appropriately, he began, "This is Troy."

The scrawny person who was very suspect in his dirty, baggy clothing, bowed surprisingly elegantly.

The speaker continued, "This is Roguemon." Roguemon was the raccoon digimon apparently, and it bowed as well. Except its bow was nowhere near as elegant as Troy's.

"And these three guys are Ninjamon." The Ninjamon stood motionless, their facial expression unchanging from the scowl.

He continued, "And my name is Seth Davis. Now I'm sure you all want to know just what happened last night, so here's my story."

Over the next twenty or so minutes, Kira and the rest of the company listened to the dramatic tale of the empty game, then of the castle, and of Lucemon's life-changing attack, and about the events that happened this morning.

After all that, the crowd reached a general consensus. They wanted to see the digimon in action. Kira thought this was only a natural reaction of course. So Seth lead the group (more like mob) back outside and everyone watched in awe as the Ninjamon leaped about the complex showing off their jumping and speed.

While they were doing that, Kira worked her way through the crowd until she was standing next to Seth. She asked him, "So, what do you plan to do now that you have a digimon?"

He turned his attention from the Ninjamon to her. He was obviously surprised to see her, but reacted calmly nonetheless. "Well," he said, "I'd kind of like to keep that a secret."

She asked another question, "Can I see your digivice? Assuming you have one, that is."

He quickly produced the digivice in question and gave it to Kira. She knew it to be from season three of the show (the company required everyone to watch all the digimon shows as a requirement to work on the Digital World: Reality project). She pressed its buttons, trying to see what it could do.

It had a clock, calendar, stopwatch, and other various utilities to make life easier, but the device held nothing really interesting. Handing it back to him, she asked him, "Why do you think this crazy Lucemon attacked you for? What's so special about you?"

He smiled a bit as he said, "I really don't know. Maybe it's better that I don't."

As if on cue, the Ninjamon again appeared at Seth's side, acting like some kind of bodyguard. Then Ronald, head of the maintenance department, came rushing up to Seth.

He pulled Seth away, probably to grill him to check if Seth wasn't the culprit behind the downed servers that he slaved over for the last twelve hours.

As Seth and Co. left, a small piece of paper fell from his pants. Nobody noticed it except for her, and she quickly scooped it up. Upon reading it, a mischievous smile crept across her face.

A smile that very mischievous indeed.

"You see sir, the Ninjamon attacked my car, and I lost control of it. It's in a ditch without any tires just a mile down the road if you want to check my story." Sonya was being interrogated by Bill Trent, the CEO of Integral Designs.

"Normally I would never believe a story as fabulous as that, but since you brought your living proof with you, I guess I'll forgive you. Now, as to getting another car, all we have open is a transport van. But..."

She cut him off. "That will do nicely, sir. I just need it for a few more hours, so I'll have it back before you know it."

Bill sat behind his desk, mulling it over in his head. He wasn't your typical clean cut CEO. No suit, no fancy haircut, no corner office on the top floor. Nope, his office was in the basement, he wore his trademark Mummymon t-shirt all the time, and his hair was a mess.

But his appearance hid his business genius really well. He'd built Integral Designs from being a computer repair shop, to one of the biggest game development companies in the world. His methods were less than professional sometimes (he wore his t-shirt to every meeting he had, important or not.), but you had to acknowledge his amazing success.

After several tantalizing moments, he replied, "I see no reason why not, but I would like to know why you need a vehicle in the first place."

Shoot. Sonya really hoped he hadn't asked that question. How could she explain what Seth and Troy were about to get themselves into? Sonya knew that he would have some objection; seeing him with his daughter, Kira, had shown her that. He may have been a rich man, but he was a stern parent. Allowing teenagers to travel to parts unknown without supervision would definitely not fly with him. He would have their parents contacted within five minutes.

Sonya really didn't know why she wanted them to go so badly herself. It would probably be dangerous and all, and who knows what effects the digital world would have on a person?

Suddenly, the door opened behind them. "I know the answer to that, dad." Kira intruded into the room, walking with a mission in her step.

He raised an eyebrow. "You do you say? What is it then?"

She handed him a small piece of paper, which Sonya immediately recognized as the scroll the Ninjamon gave Seth. She let out a moan of defeat.

Bill rapidly read the paper, and looked up at his daughter with a condescending look. "Where did you get this Kira?"

She answered proudly, "It fell out of Seth's pocket."

He leaned back in his chair and said, "This changes the situation a bit now doesn't it Sonya?"

Sonya asked, "So, uhh...can I still have that van?"

He threw his head back in laughter. Settling down, he replied with a serious look, "On one condition. You have to convince Seth to take Kira with him."

Kira gasped. She stammered, "Yoouuurr....lettin...g...me go?

He said, "Of course. Someone has to keep an eye on them. Might as well be you. Besides, I knew you'd try to sneak your way there anyway, so I might as well give you permission. Now, go get some supplies rounded up. It might be a long trip."

Kira screamed out, "YES!" and literally ran out of the room, not bothering to close the door.

Sonya couldn't believe what she'd just witnessed. "You don't have a problem with this?"

He smiled. "Nope. Like I said, she'd find a way there anyway. Might as well send her knowing I approve. That way she'll be more careful." He tossed a set of keys into her lap. "Now, get going. We don't need anyone else finding out about the little trip now do we?"

**Chaotic Notes: **

I know, its been awhile. Too bad. As I've found out, most good things either take a very long time, or happen in an instant. Unfortunately for you, this was the former.

I had to get a different laptop to work on, and that took some time.

But now, I'm back. And so is Seth and crew. I hope you like Kira, she was the best I could do. I figured I'd try the whole rich daughter/tomboy angle. (Reminiscent of Rika, but I'll try not to cross that line. It may happen though.)

The Digital World is coming. Rest assured, we'll get there probably in two chapters. I'm writing these one at a time now, instead of my first five which came in a batch. I'm juggling three other stories as well (none which will be on this site. They are original stories not based on anything here, so I'll have to post them elsewhere. ), so updates will be longer than other people might take.

So, I hope you like the next addition of Integral Realities. R&R people...

This is 2chaotic saying, good day.


	7. Drunken Developments

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything associated with it.

It's that time again.

**Chapter 7 – Drunken Developments**

I was having the best time that I've had in a LONG TIME. The entire company was in an uproar over Roguemon and the Ninjamon (who were still not looking like they were enjoying themselves. Roguemon was having a great time though.)

After the Ninjamon showed off their skills outside, some guy named Ronald decided that he was going to interrogate me and Roguemon. Ronald was the head of the maintenance department apparently, and he was definitely NOT happy that Lucemon's escapade forced him to repair servers throughout the night. The bad thing was that it had interrupted his Christmas party, which he explained to me as being highly looked forward to, and this years was a major disappointment.

"You are sure you don't know how Lucemon took over the servers?" he asked, tilting his head.

Roguemon and I said in unison, "Nope."

Roguemon continued, "Lucemon is a very powerful digimon anyway. He almost killed me without even breaking a sweat. And he did it with a smile. He could probably wreck your computers with no problem."

I added, "I can vouch for that. He almost killed ME too."

Ronald sighed as he sat back in his chair. "Well, thankfully he didn't. You don't even know how much of a mess it would have been for us had you died playing our game. Which STILL isn't fixed mind you. We have to get new servers. Our customers are not happy."

I smirked. "I'm pretty happy."

He just frowned. "That's all the questions I had for you, now how about I give you the tour since we'll probably be seeing more of you around here?"

We all stood up, and I extended my hand for him to shake. "I'll take you up on that."

Roguemon copied me. "As will I."

He shook our hands strongly, and motioned for the door. "Let's go then."

So he lead me back outside, where the party was raging. Since the discovery that their game came to life, everyone on the complex was in a great mood. They even decided to bring out the wine they were saving for the after-launch party. Troy, of course, hadn't had any.

However, the Ninjamon were clearly a little tipsy from the alcohol. Everyone said they only had one glass, but apparently that was enough for drunkenness to set in. They finally let their scowls turn into hardy laughter, and they were telling of their tales of various fights. The leader was telling the story, while the other two were boldly acting them out.

Ronald, Roguemon, and I paused to listen for a moment.

"The enemy had surrounded us and outnumbered us ten to one. They were mostly Goblimon, but their leader was a IceMeramon. They had us backed against a wall (which the Ninjamon began to act out, swords unsheathed.), and we could see the reds of their eyes. The smell of them was overbearing and very noxious, almost like the odor of burning meat. They had those arrogant grins on their faces, and their clubs were at the ready. They were all laughing menacingly too." He snickered snidely, "But they had no idea who they were messing with."

"All of a sudden, they let out a might cry, and they started their attack. We valiantly fought them for what seemed like hours! They were no match for us though, we are Ninjamon after all. When the last cloud of dust receded, only the IceMeramon was left. He tried to freeze us all, and partially succeeded. Both of my teammates were frozen to the ground, and he was almost upon me. I could feel his freezing cold breath as he closed the distance between us." The crowd was silent, anticipation held their tongues.

"He thought he had me! Me, a Ninjamon!" He leaned forward across the table and spoke softly, grinning. "Bad mistake." Withdrawing his sword, he leaped into the air, shouting, "But I jumped high above him..." He brought his sword down into the table. "And I felled him as he struggled to see where I had gone." And to that, the other two Ninjamon let out a cheer, enticing the crowd to clap.

Which only made the Ninjamon talk that much more.

I quietly said to Roguemon, "Don't ever let me even touch alcohol."

He replied, leaning in for a whisper, "What's alcohol?"

I leaned in close to him. "It's a drink that makes you do that."

He said, "Good thing I'm not thirsty."

I grabbed Troy, who said, "Thank you for the rescue. I thought I would never be around sane people again."

Leaving the drunk Ninjamon with the drunk crowd, I said to Ronald, "On with the tour."

He lead us down numerous hallways, showing us the rooms that the programmers used to make the game. I thought it was EXTREMELY AWESOOOOMMMMEEEE! This was like my second life's dream was coming true! I always loved video games, and now I actually got to see the place where they made my favorite game! (Even if it almost killed me.)

Troy was amazed as well. I couldn't say his thoughts for him, but the look on his face was definitely one of enjoyment.

Ronald showed us the computers (Might I add, HIGH TECH computers), the artists' drawing equipments (very cool), the graphical designers various 3D programs, and the storyboard room amongst other cool things that you might find at a video game company. Like the server room, for example.

The room was bland on its own, but the massive black server boxes did well to spice up the technology level in the room. They were nowhere near as loud as I thought they'd be, but they were still pretty loud.

Ronald began explaining, "Now this, of course, is the server room. This is where I spent most of my morning thanks to the little attack on you two."

As Ronald began to lead us back to the lounge, I was really beginning to realize how lucky I had been the last two days. It may have been my pessimism beginning to kick in, but I was having a bad feeling that my luck was about to hit bump in the road.

When we reached the lounge, I found Sonya waiting patiently amongst the party-goers. She was across the room, but gave me a thumbs up. I guess she meant she secured us a ride. So it was time to break the bad news to everybody. I stood back up on a table, and shouted, "HEY!" Everyone quited down, thankfully. "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it's time for us to go. As much as I'd love to stay here with all you kind folks, we really need to be going."

There was a moan among the crowd, almost like one you'd hear from disapproving children.

I really did want to stay, but the digital world held much more allure than a party ever could, even if it had wine. So I did my best to gather up the Ninjamon, who were now asleep with flushed cheeks. Troy, Roguemon, and I all put one on our shoulders and we trotted back to the main entrance with Sonya leading the way.

As we walked, she said, "I got us a van, but uhh...there was a problem." She chuckled that "I'm trying to hide something" chuckle that people sometimes did. Which meant that she was hiding something, of course.

I knew my luck couldn't last forever. "What is it?" I asked with anxiousness in my tone.

She answered, "You'll see it when we get to the van."

As we reached the van, I found the problem. Standing next to the van, was some girl who asked me a few questions while we were outside earlier. I'll have to admit, I hadn't expected to see someone my own age at a company like this one, but then again, maybe she was a tester or something.

If I had to describe her, I'd say she was your average teenage tomboy. She wore her blond hair very short, almost like a man's. She had a tan shirt on with a silhouette of the first digivice on it, and her cargo pants matched the same color as her shirt. She had this really mischievous grin on her face, almost like she knew something we didn't.

And I bet she did too.

When she saw us coming with the Ninjamon on our backs, she quickly ran over to help...me. Protesting her assistance (I was perfectly fine.), I said, "You know, I didn't ask for any help."

She still persisted in lifting the body by the underside to shift the weight off my shoulders "And I didn't offer it either," she retorted.

Sonya quickly got the side door on the van, and we deposited the Ninjamon inside. Sonya asked Roguemon, "Do digimon drink like they did in the digital world?"

He shrugged and frowned slightly. "I wouldn't know; I only lived in an isolated part of the digital world that didn't have many other digimon around."

Troy stated the obvious. "That is a bit odd, now isn't it?"

After a few moments of awkward silence, I realized I didn't know this girl's name. Turning to her, I asked, "So...who are you?"

She replied, "I'm Kira Trent."

I asked again, "And why are you here?"

She grinned. "I'm coming with you guys of course."

Wait a second. Does she mean... "What are you talking about?"

She held up the piece of paper that the Ninjamon had delivered to me.

My hand dove for my pocket where I had deposited that note just hours ago to find that my pocket had a...hole in it. Great. "Well, uhh...that explains a few things."

Troy caught on. "And just when I thought we would not find the female part of the team."

Kira obviously took offense to that. "What do you mean by that?" she said with a hint of anger in her voice.

Troy put up his hands defensively. He quickly said, "Calm down there. It is only logical to assume that any team of digidestined would have at least one female on the team, wouldn't you agree?"

Kira backed down. "That does make sense. Now, where are we going?"

I answered proudly, "To my house. I need to get some stuff ready before we go." I asked her, questioningly, "What about you? How are you getting stuff for yourself?"

She answered me by opening the trunk of the van. Inside was a large backpack.

I scratched my head. "How did you get that so quickly?"

She laughed. "I live here."

Sonya added, "It's true. Her and her father, Bill Trent the CEO of the company, live here in the basement of the complex."

Well, that was a switch. "Seriously?" I asked.

Her hands went back behind her head. "Yes. But enough lallygagging around, let's go already!"

I agreed. "I agree."

So without another word, we piled in the van (careful to avoid the still sleeping Ninjamon), and I began directing Sonya to my house.

For Troy, everything seemed to be going relatively well.

In the last day, he'd not only been attacked by a digimon, but he finally made a decent friend who didn't care that he was homeless (at least he couldn't tell.).

And he was going to go to the digital world, to boot.

It was the proper time to say from rags to riches, he thought. Even if he didn't have the slightest idea of what to expect in the days ahead, he knew it would most likely be interesting. And Troy loved interesting things. It was what he lived for. Boredom was his worst enemy, and he would do anything to make sure he wasn't bored, even steal from a police officer. At least then, he wouldn't be bored while running from a dozen or so cops.

Seth was providing a truckload of anti-boredom medicine, so Troy knew that if he stuck with him, he was likely to never be bored again.

Troy was getting his interest piked by the conversation between Seth and Kira. They seemed to be becoming fast friends from Troy's opinion, but you sure couldn't tell it by the way they acted towards each other.

Kira asked angrily, "And why is that weird, Mr. I Dream of Digimon?"

Seth retorted, "I never said it was, Ms. I Live In My Work's Basement!"

Roguemon was trying to mediate, "Hey, now, let's all just calm down," he said, using hand motions between the two of them.

They both turned to him and yelled, "You stay out of this!"

Troy just laughed, "You two are perfect for each other."

They both turned and stared malicious stares at him, which in turn made Troy sink back in his seat a little.

Sonya hadn't really said much of anything since she started driving, she had her hands full with rush hour traffic on Interstate 465, which was a task all on its own.

Troy continued listening to Seth and Kira.

Kira continued, "My hair is not like Rika's!"

Seth backed down. "Sorry, maybe that was going too far. How about we drop this topic?"

Kira nodded. "I definitely agree. So, where do you live Troy?"

Troy was surprised that Kira was even talking to him. "Seth did not tell you? I have no home of my own."

Kira frowned at this. "What do you mean?"

Troy said in response, "I am homeless."

She looked even more saddened, "That's really sad, you know?"

Troy smirked as he said, "Only if you allow it to be sad. Emotions are relative."

Then she looked confused. "You're a weird one."

Seth snidely said, "Not as weird as you."

And so they were at it again.

We arrived back at my humble abode without any more problems. As long as you don't consider arguing with Kira a problem.

I unlocked the door as everyone else picked up a still-sleeping Ninjamon. I really don't know how they slept through the random arguments me and Kira had. They were quite loud.

Which brings me to the topic of Kira. On the surface, she seemed innocent enough, but underneath, she was one heck of a stubborn fighter. We argued about everything from whose house was better to why Kira's hair looked almost like Rika's from season three of digimon to how emotion was relative.

I will have to say, I liked people who could debate with me for hours on end over random things. I liked it a lot. She was a definite switch from hanging with Troy, who hardly ever spoke (and when he did, it was usually to make the situation more awkward.).

I didn't know if I could stand her for however long we were going to be in the digital world. It would be interesting, yes, but I might not have any hair left.

Laying the Ninjamon on my bed, we all retreated to my living room. Kira, Troy, and Sonya began looking around.

Troy said, after seeing the various posters in my room, "Your collection of artwork is most superb."

I just laughed. Troy's weird dialect could make anyone laugh. He must not have picked up on the target of my humor because he gave me a weird look.

With my house now familiar to them, they came and sat in the living room with me. Sonya decided to kill the silence. "Nice house."

I said, "Thanks."

More awkward silence. So to remedy the boredom, I flipped on the TV to the evening news.

Your standard reporter dressed in a formal black business suit stared back through the TV as he said, "Thank you, Janet. Now it's time for the weirder side of news. At around two o' clock today, police found a wrecked vehicle in a ditch on the east side of Indianapolis. You may be thinking, What's so weird about that? Well, here's the strange part. All four tires had been shredded, by, get this, large ninja stars. The vehicle was licensed as a company vehicle for Integral Designs, but when asked to comment on this, they had none."

That was enough news. I quickly turned it off. "Well, that's not good."

Sonya slapped her forehead and groaned.

Kira asked, "Is that what you guys we're driving?"

Roguemon answered, "Yes."

After another moment of silence, I finally felt like doing something productive. "I think I'll go pack now." Turning to Troy, I commanded, "Troy, come on, you can use some of my clothes."

He shook his head, "No, I could not intrude upon your property in that way."

This would not do at all. "Heh, heh, funny. Come on you."

So, with the Ninjamon sleeping on the bed, we set out to fit Troy up with some clothes."

Impatience was not in MagnaAngemon's nature.

But this was ridiculous.

He had sent the Ninjamon to bring Seth and Roguemon to the digital world that morning, and they assured him that it would not take very long to locate him. However, it had been at least twelve hours. There hadn't been any reports of more attacks in the real world either.

But as MagnaAngemon knew all too well, there was most likely a valid reason for the delay, so he could wait a day more before starting to get worried.

However, Flamdramon and Leomon were not as patient.

Flamdramon started in, slamming his armored fists on the table. "What's taking those Ninjamon so long? They should have been here hours ago!"

Leomon also slammed his fists down. "Flamdramon is right. How can we protect them if they aren't here to protect?!"

MagnaAngemon stood up, and shouted (much to the surprise of the two generals), "I will give them a little more time before we send another party. They may have been held up, these things happen."

The two other digimon were not happy with this decision. Flamdramon concealed his anger, but Leomon took the time to leave the room, slamming the door behind him to express his anger.

MangaAngemon knew that the risk was huge, but if the enemy had not yet tried another attack on the poor human, then he was perfectly alright where he was.

Leomon would just have to manage his anger better.

Thankfully, Troy was almost my size. Plus he wasn't picky like some people might have been. I liked that.

All was quiet again in the house, everyone but me and Roguemon was asleep. Even Sonya decided to camp out here for tonight. I didn't mind, we had more than enough room for everybody.

We were sitting in the kitchen, staring at the Ho-Hos I had fished out. Things had been slow since we got back home, which was probably a good thing. I could only handle so much excitement in one day.

Roguemon ate his desert whole, licking his teeth happily. He stared at me as I just sat there, staring at my Ho Ho. "What's wrong with you?" he asked cautiously.

I yawned and stretched my arms high above my head. "Nothing, I'm just tired. All this awesomeness took a lot out of me apparently."

He chuckled. "It has been awesome, yes."

As I finally began eating my Ho Ho, he stared at the window with a very longing look in his eyes.

Then he went all sentimental on me. "Thanks."

I was confused. "For what?"

He looked back at me, "Well, for..." Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and he began growling slightly. He rapidly looked around, as if he was waiting for something to attack us.

Then he said in a deep, ominous voice, "There's a new digimon nearby."

Crap. I'd left my cards in my room, along with my digivice. I quickly made a mental note to never do that again. I leaped from the table and dashed for my room.

As I was passing through the living room, the door burst down, right on cue. The door was sent flying across the room, and it smashed into the television with a loud crack. A small dust cloud hid the attacker from sight, but fear kept me from stopping to look at my assailant.

However, Roguemon held no such fear. He immediately jumped at the clouded figure in the doorway, dagger already flashing in the scattered moonlight.

I grabbed my cards and digivice, and ran back out into the living room. Just as I rounded the corner to be in sight of the door, I felt a sharp pain erupt in my jaw.

Wait a second, nobody was around to hit me. Then how in the heck did I feel like I was just punched in the jaw really hard? No...

It couldn't be.

Lucemon's Destiny Bind attack must still have been active. Either that or else I had just been hit by an invisible brick.

Which meant that if what Lucemon had said was true, if Roguemon died....

I couldn't allow that to happen.

I sprang into action, rounding the corner to see what was going on. Standing in the doorway, arm still extended in a punching position, were two Gotsumon. They had both punched Roguemon apparently. He was back on his feet about five yards away from them in the front yard. At first, both Gotsumon had their eyes on him, but then they noticed me.

One Gotsumon said to the other, "You keep that one busy, I'll take care of the child." Then they both assumed battle stances, with one facing me, and the other facing Roguemon.

This was definitely not a fair fight for me. I mean seriously, how was I supposed to hurt a digimon made of ROCKS!? Not a good time at all. The only chance I had was to either wake the Ninjamon (which wasn't likely), or to avoid the Gotsumon long enough for Roguemon defeat his opponent.

I chose the second option. Not giving the Gotsumon any warning, I immediately began running for the side door in the kitchen. It yelled out, "Hey! Get back here! I hadn't even introduced myself yet!" and began chasing me.

Thankfully, I got outside without a problem, and I began running down the street as fast as my legs could carry me. Which apparently wasn't fast enough because the Gotsumon was right behind me. Of course he was, it would be too simple otherwise.

I quickly pulled a power booster card out of my deck, and slashed it through the digivice.

I saw Roguemon instantly charge at the other Gotsumon, not wasting any time. Surely the increased power would help him out as he yelled, "Rogue Twister!" He twirled in the air with his dagger extended at arm's length. The Gotsumon didn't have any time to react, and was launched into the air as Roguemon slammed into him. Roguemon chased after him, not letting up his counterattack one bit.

However, even though I was really relieved for Roguemon, I felt REALLY strange. I felt my muscles grow tighter, and my legs and arms were moving significantly easier, almost like they were somehow stronger. It wasn't a bad feeling, no, quite the opposite. It felt GREAT! It was almost like the card I slashed for Roguemon somehow gave me more power too!

Then I noticed my shirt glowing. I looked down, still running, and saw that it wasn't my shirt that was glowing, but my skin. It was definitely glowing a bright blue, with noticeable lines in the shape of a hexagon.

The mark that Lucemon made on me, apparently, made me share some of the power, in addition to the pain.

Ohhhhhh, I could already tell this was a lovely perk.

I stopped running, and faced the Gotsumon. He appeared to be somewhat surprised, and I wouldn't blame him. But he obviously wasn't counting on me to leap at him, arms pulled back for a punch.

The raw energy surged through my arms, and my fist used that energy to plow into the Gotsumon, sending him skidding across the pavement of the street.

He quickly stood back up, saying, "Woah, I didn't know a human could do that."

I rushed him again saying as I smiled, "I didn't know that either." His eyes widened as I hit him once more, this time making him collide with a mailbox, denting it. Oops. I would hear about that one later.

He stood back up again. His mood had changed now, and he looked really frustrated. He pointed his head at me and yelled, "Rock Fist!" Instead of him charging me like I thought he would, three rocks blasted out of his head and hit me square in the chest. The impact knocked me to the ground, and took the breath right out of me.

I was in trouble now. While I was struggling to catch my breath, the Gotsumon ripped the mailbox from the ground. He slowly walked towards me with it, and I could see what he intended to do with it.

He was going to kill me.

Fear pumped adrenaline through my veins, but it did no good. I still was gasping for air, and the Gotsumon was casting his moonlight shadow over my head. I could see the malicious intent behind his yellow eyes. He brought the mailbox high over his head, like a executioner's axe.

I closed my eyes. There was nothing I could do to stop him.

This was the end.

My whole body tensed up, and I waited for the inevitable.

But the inevitable never came. Instead, I heard the sound of steel hitting rock, and the Gotsumon yelled out in pain. My eyes shot open, revealing the sight of a Ninjamon impaling the Gotsumon who was about to kill me.

The Gotsumon literally exploded into thousands of tiny particles, which I assumed to be data particles, and the Ninjamon quickly absorbed all of them into his body. Then he turned to me with a sorry look on his face. "My deepest apologies, the wine made us careless. I assure you it will not happen again. Let's get you back inside."

He picked me up, and carried me back to the house. The house that now had a few more gaping holes in the side of it than I remembered.

The stress of the battle finally caught up with my body, and weariness washed over me. It began to force to into sleep, and I happily embraced it.

The last thing I remember was thinking how I was going to explain the battered house to my parents.

**Chaotic Notes:**

Well, there's your filler out of the way for today. It contains some plot, but not enough to not earn the unwanted title of filler.

So there you have it. I just showed you why you should never let your bodyguards have any sort of mind-altering drinks. Ever. I liked writing this chapter a whole lot thanks to that nice little "drunken Ninjamon" scene.

I also bet you didn't see Seth's little burst of power coming did you? You can't tell me that you did. I know you didn't. Don't you lie to me. Hope you like this, cause it's going to become way more complicated now.

So is the plot for that matter.

Next chapter? Definitely NOT filler.

Now the real fun starts.

Or I could totally be lying and the next chapter could be a filler.

Hehehe.


	8. Let's Get Digital

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything associated with it.

Ah, three chapters in three days. What fun on my sleeping habits.

**Chapter 8 – Let's get Digital.**

I awoke silently, in my bed with the curtains streaming morning sunlight in my face. Instantly, my body began aching all over. My muscles hurt, my stomach really hurt, and I had one heck of a headache.

But I was alive.

I had almost died last night. That was the second time in two days. I was really getting tired of it. It was kind of stressful to think you're going to die multiple times. Don't recommend it.

The alarm clock read 7:34 AM, so at least I woke up relatively early. It was a waste of time to sleep in. Time that could be spent going to the digital world.

As I climbed out of bed, I heard my door open. The lead Ninjamon was staring at my through the crack the open door made. He was tense at first, but he relaxed soon after he saw nothing out of place in my room. Which was good because I didn't feel like any more trauma at the moment.

He silently stepped aside so I could leave my room, and I groggily found everyone already waiting for me in the living room. As I entered, they all stared at me like I was the odd man out or something. It was the same look that people at school gave me when they thought I was weird. Which was all the time, of course. The situation was only made weirder by the blow-out front door and broken television.

I yawned. "Hey guys, what's up?"

Sonya answered, "What happened to you last night?"

My mind recollected the battle last night, and reviewed just what did happen to me. I could remember the raw power that I had felt surging through my veins, and how I almost clobbered that Gotsumon. And of course, how it beat me.

I laughed. "Well, let's just say I almost died, but I found out that Lucemon gave me 'blessed' curse."

Troy asked the obvious question, yet again... "Define 'blessed'."

Well, I guess the only way to describe it was to give a demonstration. Hopefully. I had a bad feeling that it wouldn't work. Almost like it was a one time deal, in which case, I was going to be severely disappointed.

Without another word, I calmly walked back to my room to get my cards and digivice. Kira yelled out, "Hey, what gives?"

I walked back the staring Ninjamon, and rustled through my card collection. I had so many, it was hard to chose just one. But, I almost laughed evilly as I found the perfect card. Oh, this was going to be good.

I slashed it through the digivice with all the gusto of Takato.

I heard a commotion coming from the living room as Roguemon had probably been effected by the card. Then the eerie blue light began to glow under my shirt once more, and I felt strange again.

Then a surge of energy rolled through me, and I knew, DEFINITELY knew the card was effecting me too.

Then I disappeared from sight.

That's right, I scanned an invisibility card. I was now completely invisible at least for a minute or two.

Grinning wildly, I marched silently back past the Ninjamon, who didn't notice me. (Which could be a bad thing...) Into the living room I went, noticing that Roguemon had also disappeared. Troy was putting his hand out to where Roguemon was sitting, groping around. Kira was speechless, but Sonya wasn't phased all that much for some reason. She just sat there watching Troy grope for Roguemon.

Roguemon said, "This is new."

Kira must have picked up on what happened to Roguemon, and she called out to me again, thinking I was still in my room. "Seth, why are you scanning cards in there?"

Hehehe. She had no idea.

I walked around behind her seat, and leaned in close to her ears. And I said in the deepest voice possible, "I'm not."

She freaked out. She literally jumped out of the chair, and looked like she was ready to fight whatever had just spoken to her. Too bad she couldn't see me.

She yelled, "Seth, is that you?!"

I picked up a piece of wood from the broken door to show them where I was and said, "Yep, it's me alright."

You should have seen the look on their faces. Troy's mouth was actually wide open, Sonya's eyes were extremely wide, and Kira was exhibiting both of those looks.

Roguemon, still invisible, said, "So that's how you dealt with your Gotsumon. And here I though you just tried to reason with him."

The lead Ninjamon saw the escapade from his position outside my door. He was also extremely surprised. "This changes a few things..." However, he quickly reverted to his old scowling self. "Never mind that, are your preparations complete?"

I tossed my piece of wood from hand to hand. "As ready as they'll ever be."

He smiled for a slight second. "Good, now please come into the room with the computer. It's time to go to the digital world."

I finally began to fade back into sight as I followed Troy, Kira, and the reappearing form of Roguemon to my bedroom.

Sonya stopped us and put her hands on my and Troy's shoulders (Kira was in between us), and leaned in close with a serious look on her face. She said, "I guess this is goodbye for now. You had all better come back safely, for my sake. I can't imaging what lies ahead in the digital world, but take care of yourselves, okay?" There were tears streaming down her face, and she began to bite her lips.

I put my hand on her shoulder and said in reply, "Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. Just make sure my parents don't freak out if we're gone too long. 'Kay?"

She nodded and backed away.

We turned back to the now-three waiting Ninjamon who where standing in front of the computer with our bags. We'd packed most of the simple-to-cook foods from my pantry, as well as the good majority of my useful digimon cards, in addition to the clothes and personal effects that we might need.

They formed a circle behind us, and gently inched us forward closer to the computer screen.

The three Ninjamon pulled out some smoke bombs, but I had a feeling that they weren't normal smoke bombs. The leader asked one last time, "Are you ready?"

Sonya waved from out in the living room, tears still rolling down her face. It seemed she did care for us after all.

I looked at Troy, Kira, and Roguemon, and they all looked back with the same determined grin that I was wearing. In unison, we nodded at the Ninjamon.

They threw their smoke bombs down, and the instant they hit the floor, the whole room was bathed in light from the computer screen that suddenly started acting up. I felt the light take hold of me, and it tugged me towards our destination. With every passing split-second, the pull grew stronger, until it felt like I was going to fall backwards.

This was it.

I was finally going to the digital world.

I felt my body leave Earth's gravity, and I floated backwards into the light. Then as the light completely enveloped me, I blacked out.

**Chaotic Notes: **

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a short chapter. Deal with it. It's 11:30 PM and I'm tired. I've been up till 1 AM on school nights writing this, and it's starting to feel like I battled that Gotsumon instead of Seth.

But don't complain, now next chapter, Seth will wake up in the digital world! Besides, do you really expect me to begin the digital world arc in the middle of a chapter? Seriously?

I finally got them there, so now the real plot will begin pouring out like rain in a hurricane. (YAY INTERNAL RYHMINING!)

So, the next update will probably be a few days. I need to sleep so I can stay awake to see The Watchmen tomorrow.

Good night.


	9. Somebody set us up the wrong gate

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything attributed to it.

Lol, my writing habits are so much better since I started this story, or at least I think they have...

**Chapter 9 – Somebody set us up the wrong gate** (hehe)

If you thought the entrance was bad, then the exit was something straight out of the movie Vertigo. If you haven't seen that one, it has a scene in it where someone falls off a tall building. The camera zooms in on their face, and you watch them plummet to their death. Or I guess the exit could have been straight from season three of digimon, in which the tamers literally fall from the sky when they entered the digital world.

Yeah, that's pretty much what happened.

As soon as (I assumed) we had crossed the barrier between the two worlds, I felt myself falling. Not slowly either. Very, very fast. Too fast for comfort.

The ground, of course, had to be at most 300 feet below me.

NOT GOOD.

The ground rushed up to meet me, trying to cause me pain. I knew that this was it. Some fluke thing was going to kill me. Of course. I finally get to the digiworld, and it kills me before I can even set foot properly on the ground. Oh the irony.

Roguemon was falling right next to me, and we just so happened to look at each other at the same time. He looked at me, I looked at him, we grabbed each other, and we took one last look at the ground before it claimed our lives. We also began screaming. Loudly.

I shut my eyes just before we hit 50 feet above the ground, but the impact never came.

Instead, I felt myself land in some kind of netting before it bounced me and Roguemon back into the air.

What in the heck was going on?

Troy, Kira, the three Ninjamon, and all of our supplies past by my vision shortly after I reopened my eyes. They hit the net as well, and were flung back into the air. Troy and Kira were freaking out just as bad as Roguemon and I were, but the Ninjamon looked like they were used to it.

I yelled to them on my way back down. "What's all this?"

The Lead Ninjamon yelled back, "This is the Net Forest; these cables stretch all through the trees making these giant nets."

On my second time back in the air, I actually began to enjoy the bouncing. It was kind of fun.

I lie. It was a lot of fun. I mean, come on, when was the last time you found yourself bouncing enormously high in the air on massive nets in a forest? It was like a trampoline on steroids. So in reply to the whole situation, I began laughing.

After the bouncing finally came to a halt, and we had climbed down to the forest floor, it was time to address what we needed to do next. As much as I loved standing around in a forest blanketed by (randomly) white cables that acted as nets without any knowledge of where I was, I had a MangaAngemon to see.

The Ninjamon pulled out a very detailed map. The leader began to point out our current location. "We are in the Net Forest which is here." He pointed at a large patch of green colored land that sat on the dead center of the map. "We need to go here, to Root City." His fingers moved to a large patch of grey labeled "Root City" just to the right of the forest.

The map made it seem like a long trip, but I was quickly corrected by the Ninjamon. "It is but a few hour's journey. We will arrive by midday."

I looked up to see the sun just starting to rise between gaps in the trees.

Troy asked ironically, "Is an hour here the same amount of time as an hour in the real world?"

The leader responded with his scowl.

Kira laughed.

Roguemon was eager to leave apparently. He already had picked up my backpack of food I had packed, and was looking around. "Which way are we going?"

The leader held up a compass that he pulled from an unseen pocket. The arrow on it quickly steadied, and he pointed. "To the east."

So we all picked up our packs, following Roguemon's example, and we began marching.

I had a feeling this "few hours" wouldn't take very long.

Sonya was not having a good day.

After she returned to the Integral Designs complex, she found it in a state of disarray. Whatever party had taken place the night before had left the place with people lying everywhere, tables overturned, food spilled, computers on the fritz, and the smell of janitorial supplies.

And worst of all, the servers for the game were still not back online.

Ronald and Bill were in a frenzy down in the server room connecting cords, attaching new hard drives, moving servers around, and overall, being sober. But then again, Ronald and Bill never did drink too much.

As they noticed Sonya enter the room, Bill let out a sigh and relaxed against a server. "They gone?"

She leaned against the door, even though she didn't need to relax herself. "Yes, they just left."

Ronald paused for a moment before going back to attaching the power cables to the server he was working on. "Anything new happen?"

Sonya knew they probably wouldn't like what they was about to hear, but she told they the events of the past 12 hours anyway.

Bill sat Indian-style on the floor as he listened to Seth's account of the fighting, and how he was able to use the effects of the cards he had on himself in addition to Roguemon. His eyes widened during the account of the surprise attack, but he never said a word.

Ronald never stopped working though. He would occasionally look up at Sonya for some reason, and he was able to put a whole new server together during her speech.

At the end of it, Bill laid back on the floor like a tired child. Sonya could obviously tell that he was worried about Kira. Bill had a hard time hiding his emotions when it came to her.

He posed a question to her. "Do you think I did the right thing?"

She replied with her head hung low, "I can't say."

Ronald however, said, "At least you sent her knowing that you wouldn't be mad at her. That has to count for something." Ronald walked over to Bill and helped him up.

Bill had tears in his eyes. "It's been so hard to know what to do without Jane around. She always knew what to do, you know?"

Sonya put her hand on his shoulder and said, "She did, but you're doing the best you can."

Bill immediately dried his tears and picked up a new hard drive. With renewed vigor, he shouted, "Let's fix these servers!"

Sonya chuckled. That was something Seth might do.

"Are we there yet?" I asked. For such a nice day, this "few hour" hike through cable-infested woods was turning into a grueling dive into exhaustion.

The lead Ninjamon said, "Not yet, but we should be in sight within moments."

We had mostly walked in silence, expect for the few "oofs" and "ouch"es that we seemed to be accumulating. A few of the cables were expertly hidden in the ground just well enough to trip you. Not a fun time when you weren't expecting any kind of limb messing up your walking pattern.

The forest itself wasn't so far off of what you might see in a heavily wooded area. There was the occasional shrub or bush that I hadn't the slightest idea about, and some of the trees were strange looking. Take that, and all the random cabling away, and you had an average real world forest. Well, except for all the lack of life. We hadn't seen any other digimon. That was extremely odd. I though we'd at least see a few. But, no, that would be too simple.

So I asked the obvious question. "Where's all the other digimon?"

The leader said, "This area is generally uninhabited. Even the plant type digimon don't like this area. Most reside on the outskirts of Root City."

Troy asked in reply, "What is the reason for this?"

Ninjamon paused. His fist clenched, and he tensed up. He said in a calm tone, "The war."

I cringed. Great. There's a war involved. No wonder they sent an escort.

He continued. "The neighboring region, the Dark Sector, has sent wave after wave of foot soldiers to conquer our lands. They are leaded by the Seven Demon Lords: Myotismon, Beelzemon, Cherubimon, Piedmon, ChaosGallantmon, Puppetmon, and Lucemon..."

Lucemon. The digimon who almost ended my life just two nights before. Just hearing his name filled me with a feeling of rage. Since I was here, and assuming he was the one who sent those Gotsumon to attack me, I had a bad feeling I was going to see him again.

But this time, he would be the one who was going to get beat to a pulp. I would see to that myself.

While I was seething in my thoughts of vengeance, I tripped on a cable, and feel flat on my face.

Ninjamon continued his speech as I picked myself up. "They have assaulted our borders to the North and West for the past few months. Our defenses are beginning to fail, and hope is steadily being darkened. Their strength is deafening. We may not last through the next month." His voice was steadily becoming more and more emotional. I could easily tell it disturbed him to say this.

The only way I could see to cheer him up was to say proudly as I looked to Roguemon, "Then we'll just have to beat them back."

Roguemon added confidently, "Yeah."

Troy and Kira concurred. "Right," they said in unison.

The leader said, on the verge of tears, "It is not that simple. They have a whole army, what can three humans possibly do?"

He had a point. At this pessimism, (Which I kind of agreed with) we fell silent once more, and focused on avoiding the hidden cables in the ground.

But not for long.

Soon enough, we reached a thick part of the cabling that took a long time to get through, but when we were through...

The lead Ninjamon said proudly, "We have arrived. Behold, Root City!"

We all beheld the sight of Root City alright. Behold wasn't quite the word I would use though. It was more like, "be awestruck".

The city was massive, even from this distance. City didn't do the word the proper homage though. More like, metropolis. Yep, definitely metropolis. The outskirts of the city was layout like your standard suburban neighborhood. Houses of various design and size littered the grassland surrounding the city.

The city itself contained a massive, sparkling white castle as its definitive, eye-grabbing feature. The castle held numerous spires as well as a high wall that extended around the inner city. The wall was equipped with large cannon, and they must have been large to have been seen at this distance.

The midday sun gleamed across the surface of the castle. It was hard to directly look at it, the glare was almost like looking at the sun.

Across the grassland was patches of farms and windmills that indicated this place must be farmlands for the main city.

All in all, this amazing setup looked like something straight from medieval era England. I wasn't all that big in castles and such, but I was sure this one would warm up to me quite nicely. Even if my stay wouldn't be very long. Just seeing something like this was cool enough, but actually getting to go inside? Wow. Just wow.

Yep, definitely "be awestruck."

The only thing I could say was, "We...get to go...there?"

Troy commented, "'There', Seth, is an understatement."

Kira agreed. "He has a point."

The lead Ninjamon laughed. "You humans are weird creatures. Your giant metal buildings are much more extravagant than Root Castle. Why are you so amazed?"

I replied, "You think our skyscrapers are something special? They've got nothing on this."

He said, "Enough standing around." He turned to one of his comrades. "Go, announce our arrival." The appropriate Ninjamon began dashing towards the magnificent castle. Then the leader turned back to us. "Come, MangaAngemon awaits."

So we started walking.

Again.

Now was their chance.

Those wretched commanders at Root City had evaded their demise long enough.

Etemon recollected the campaign against their foes as he endured the snowstorm.

It all began so easily with the orders from the Demon Lords. The plan was simple. Overwhelm the Root Sector's main city into submission. Once that was done, the rest of the sector would fall with ease.

The first few waves of attack from the North and West were beaten back easily due to the terrain of the Root Mountains. The Root Mountains isolated the Root Sector from the region due to the fact that the mountains made one giant circle around the grassland in the middle of them. The mountains only had four accessible areas through which armies could cross without taking substancial losses from the savage weather in the mountains. The North and West passes were heavily guarded due to their ease of usage. The East and South passes were unusually hard to use because they were both tunnels that ran straight through large mountains.

The few attacks of the tunnel passes failed miserably. The first line of the Root's defense fought back every soldier without faltering in the slightest. The passages were just too narrow to fight effectively, so the dark armies couldn't use their number advantage at all.

Lucemon had come up with the devious and risky plan to get through the South pass, and placed Etemon to be in charge of the force.

Etemon's orders were to take a legion of troops, and wait at the west entrance of the Root Mountains until a snowstorm hit. Then he was to take his troops and rush to the Southern Tunnel Pass that combed the great Mt. Monolith. The tricky part was getting through the bottleneck tunnels, but Lucemon's plan would see to that.

Etemon watched from his place on the back of a Deltamon as the last regiment of his legion slowly made its way into the encampment. He cleared his throat and pulled out his trusty microphone. Tonight, the troops would hear him sing his favorite songs that he himself wrote. Whether they liked them or not.

But tomorrow, the assault on the Root Sector would begin in earnest.

**Chaotic Notes:**

Yay, slightly more plot!

I could not for the life of me come up with any suitable conflict in this chapter. Sorry if your hopes were up to see some more fighting. Thankfully, your thirst to see fighting will come next chapter, as indicated by the obvious foreshadowing at the end of this chapter.

I had fun trying to figure out ironic ways for Seth and Co to enter the digiworld in a bad spot. I hope you like the way I did it though, cause I had a hard time writing it.

Until next time, good night. (Please, if I'm doing anything wrong, or if you see something I could do better, tell me. If you think I'm doing something right, and need to keep doing it (or do it better), tell me. I want your criticism. And your praise, if you have any. It's the only way this story (and any more that I write) will get better.)


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